The Fault
by The Guilty Bystander
Summary: What would have happened if Dib finally pushed his nemesis over the edge? Takes place after the cookie-cutter 'Tak crashes to earth and joins Zim' template. In the 'cleaning up' process.
1. The Fault

Gaz stood with Tak on the Playground, watching Alien and Human clash with mild disinterest. The girls had formed a pact that whenever things between Zim and Dib got a little too intense they would be the ones to break it up. Neutrally distrustful of the other nonetheless, but it worked.

It had been Gaz's idea. When Zim had broken his leg and Dib his arm while in a fight, the two of them were the only ones to listen to their groans of pain. Gaz was tired of it and even Tak was wearing down from all the fighting. And so their current solution was formed.

Gaz had expressed some admiration in Tak for having captured the raw destructive power in Zim and given it much needed direction. Tak knew she respected Gaz for living as Dib's sister and despite the age difference between the siblings being wiser and intimidating…. for a human anyway. They watched at a distance as the insults gained volume.

"You won't get away with it Zim!" Dib shouted as the crowd began to gather.

"Foolish Earth-Creature! Your planet will be crushed by the wrath of ZIM!"The humans' blind eyes and deaf ears heard Zim say this but their brains did not comprehend. Tak groaned quietly to herself in response to the effect the human had on her partner.

Dib was the only person who could get Zim to refer to himself in the third person while shouting anymore and it annoyed Tak to no end. All the work put in to molding him into an Irken, and this one human could so easily undermine it. She would normally destroy him but her partner needed the emotional release.

Zim needed to feel that not too much had changed in their lives. Tak would sometimes leave him alone in the base to do… whatever he does while she's gone. He needed some time to be himself and not anything she had created him to be. Little did she know that she needed time to be herself too.

The Zim she helped make was perfect. He was nice (to her), considerate, not too self centered, but just enough to be an Irken, and most of all he was focused. However, that was work. When Tak just wanted to relax in the base or when they were celebrating a holiday, she let him revert to a degree of his old self. He kept the shouting in check and the work obsessions down while they relaxed and she in turn would not be too vengeful and angry. Worked for everyone. Dib's muscles tensed.

Before the human could through a punch at Zim, Tak was already blocking it with her hand. She grabbed his fist and pulled him past her to the snow covered asphalt where Gaz picked him up. Zim went in to finish what she started, but she dragged him back to the swings by the back of his coat.

"Tak-beast? What are you doing? Unhand Zim! The Dib is Weakened!" Zim pulled out of her grasp but then she flashed him a warning glare that would give even the Tallest reason to hesitate. Zim calmed down immediately and dusted himself off, gaining his composure once more. They walked back to the swings where he leaned on one of the poles holding up the construction while she started to sway in one of its seats, relishing the cold bite of Earth's winter.

"I could have taken him you know." Zim muttered earning another glare from Tak, a glare, he pointedly ignored.

"Are you not grateful?" Tak drawled lowly with an exaggerated scowl. Zim pretended to be aghast at her accusation.

"Of course not! I am the very soul of gratefulness." He responded overdramatically. They each grinned in amusement of their 'joke' before returning to their particular roles of the day to day routine. Respectively, Tak went back to swinging while ignoring Dib and Zim went back to glaring back at the human who returned his gaze from across the playground.

Dib sat at his computer, brooding to himself in the darkness. He was still somewhat annoyed that Tak had interrupted earlier that day, but he was mostly angry at Zim. That stupid Alien had to mock him today didn't he. He had to go and make fun of him, flaunting that stupid plan of his.

Everyone else at school left him alone on this particular Wednesday for a very specific reason. Even Gaz was more reclusive, though she did a better job at hiding it from the rest of the school.

Tak probably knew what the day was, but Zim was the only one who could remain ignorant of it. Mother's day had been a thorn in his side for five years and the pain only seemed to get worse. Gaz refused to talk to anyone today and only got more into her games to escape her undeniable emotions… typical.

She could just ignore reality but Dib had to live with it every day. Stupid Irkens never even had parents, how can they know the pain? They don't feel, they are illusions of life, machines with flesh and simulated personalities. Dib was grinding his teeth together as he sulked.

He reviewed his mind for anything he could use to get back at Zim for his arrogance. Something that would hurt him deeply and leave scars… Suddenly it came to him. He had always come upon a certain term while reading Tak's ship's files but he never realized the significance it held until now.

He quickly typed in the Irken figures for Defective. As the files sprung up he read to himself, lulling the crudely translated words around in his mouth to figure out what they meant. Slowly a cruel smile began to spread across his face. _And so it begins._

The next day, at the playground, almost no one was there. Mother's day was conveniently moved to be celebrated in the dead of winter, so the snow made everything cold and sparkly around them. Almost everyone was out sick or had broken their nose by slipping on the ice or something. All was perfect.

Zim was standing near the swings. On this particular day he was wearing something that looked much like Tak's armor beneath his hologram which displayed a kid wearing a heavy winter coat colored red and black. Tak was on the swings with a similar disguise with the purple blue colors neatly projected.

Gaz wore her regular clothes and stood next to Dib playing her game, despite the fact that snow kept covering the screen every time she wiped it away. Zita was sliding repeatedly down the slides as there was no line today and Gretchen had the back of her knees frozen to the monkey bars, conveniently upside down. She had given up all consciousness hours ago.

Dib stood in the very center of the frozen wasteland that was the playground, looking directly at Zim. The Irken quickly realized the challenge and came forth to face his nemesis. Tak decided to wait back at the swings as did Gaz with her bench. Listening carefully for the first sign of trouble the two females waited patiently.

"Hello Zim." Dib sneered. He drew out the alien's name so long it began to sound like a hiss. Tak did not like the way the human seemed so confident. She slid her hand into one of her armor's pockets, gripping an Irken standard sidearm pistol she stopped swinging as Gaz saved her game and put it away. They watched from a distance.

"Dib-Human." Zim replied curtly. Dib grinned wider.

"You know Zim. I did a bit of reading last night." The human put his hands in his trench coats pockets.

"I hope the big words didn't hurt your rudimentary brain." Zim threw the first insult. Dib ignored it completely. Zim felt a twisting feeling in his guts.

"I read a bit about history… some operations your Tallest had recorded." Zim didn't like where this was going. The Dib knew something he shouldn't.

"As it turns out I remembered that you leaders called this invasion Operation Impeding Doom Two… so I wondered, what happened to the first." Zim stiffened… Dib's grin grew wider, he had hit a nerve. Tak could no longer hear what they were saying; she stood and started to approach. Gaz glared intently at the two.

"That's right Zim… I know all about your little "incident." Destroyed half your home world did you? You were banished to be a fry cook's assistant." His voice dropped to a mocking whisper as he leaned in close to his enemy. The alien's face was unreadable but he had started to quiver ever so slightly.

"And then they have it on record that you showed up on the launch day of operation impending Doom two and demanded a mission. They sent you off in a random direction to die." Dib smirked even wider as Zim clutched his head in his hands. Tak quickened her pace, her anger forming over her face like a mask, Gaz grunted, but got up from the bench and started to walk towards them.

"You're a recorded Defective. The shortest Defective on record I believe." Dib finished up quickly. Zim reached behind his back and grabbed something from his PAK. A small purple moose was revealed, he pressed something behind its antlers.

Gaz backed up, Dib looked confused, and Tak's eyes widened in terror of what Zim might have just done. The moose began to glow as it squeaked louder and louder, it reached a pitch that almost sounded like laughter.

Zim held Mini moose in his hand, face emotionless; he simply held it towards Dib before it exploded in a flash of brilliant light.

Tak opened her eyes to find herself flat on her back. The sky was dark, so she assumed it was night. She slowly got up to her knees, ignoring the cracks and groans of her bones, and looked around. Her gaze quickly focused on the enormous smoking crater that had once been the school.

The snow was now mixed with ashes of what she assumed were Dib's and Zim's and the regular snow was tainted black with the settling smoke. Tak grimaced as she thought of how Zim would escape this one, about how he would weasel out of death's hands once again.

Gaz appeared next to her, admiring the destruction. Tak would have been surprised, but she had quickly learned that Gaz was… something not earthly. Mini moose floated next to her from bellow as well. She had examined it before and knew that there was absolutely no way it could be destroyed or tampered with by any means known today. The thing chirped happily as it saw her.

Tak looked around when she reached the center of the crater. There was nothing but rubble, bent metal, Ms. Bitters with her illogically intact desk, and a larger pile of crushed brick. The smoke was drifting slowly from the burning ruble of the crater.

Gaz wandered over to the bricks and kicked them lightly, they split apart into dust and a battered Dib was revealed. His nose was undoubtedly broken, half his glasses were missing, one eye was swollen shut, and his lip was split but he was alive. Other than the damage to his face it looked like his arm was broken as was his leg, due to the awkward angle they were bent at.

Tak scowled at the human. He had to meddle didn't he? He couldn't have left Zim alone, and now look at the results! The one time Dib scored a verbal blow against him and then Mini moose detonates. Tak set about finding her partner as Gaz helped her brother up.

"Are you all right Dib?" Gaz asked her brother while they stood watching Tak. He looked at her for a moment with a dazed appearance in his one open eye before responding.

"WHAT?" He screamed at her. Tak would have chuckled to herself on any other occasion. He would have an awful ringing in his ears for a bit but he would hear again. Gaz punched Dib in his unbroken arm, conveying what words could not.

Tak looked around, he had to be here somewhere; there was no way the human could survive a blast that Zim couldn't. She shifted a few rocks with her spider legs and began to panic. What if he died while she looked for him? What if she was blamed for his death? What if she- Tak took a deep breath, she had failsafes put in place for situations like this, and losing her head would not help.

Thinking quickly she reached into her PAK and pulled out a data tablet. She had placed a tracker on Zim many months ago…. for his own good, and now she would see if it worked after that explosion.

The little dot beeped once, twice, and then pointed to some nearby twisted metal. Tak rushed over and began to dig with all limbs available. She scraped and clawed until her hands were numb and her claws were chipped or broken but she still didn't stop, Zim would not die while under her care, she would not allow it.

Gaz watched in silence. Tak had no idea how frantic she looked. She was practically feral, digging with everything she had. She felt sad that it was a coin flip chance that he was still alive, but none of these emotions reached her face. She watched as Tak pulled a large bolder from the hole and threw it away- and then froze. Hesitantly the Irken reached down into the hole and grabbed something. All Gaz could see was one gloved claw, it hung limply in Tak's grasp.

"Zim?" Tak choked out his name through the pressure in her throat as the tears began to well up into her eyes. She completely ignored the human watching her. This couldn't of happened, he couldn't be dying, she wouldn't have let him… His hand fell from hers, already it was cold. Tak slowly picked Zim up from the hole.

She held him carefully, like a child or really fragile toy. Gaz noticed that one of his hands was missing, both eyes were closed and pink blood was beginning to well up in his uniform, revealed past his bent and splintered armor. His Pak had a large dent in it.

Mini moose had stopped spinning in the air and looked at his master with wide eyes. It squeaked but Tak ignored it. She slowly got up from her knees and absentmindedly deactivated her disguise revealing her pale green skin and purple eyes.

Dib finally began to hear the wind blow just as he turned to Tak. Cradling Zim in her hands she looked at him with a dead stare. Dib felt heartbroken just by the look in her eyes, it was empty and emotionless. No one spoke for a while, just the light sound of wind and the silent fall of blackened snow.

"What am I supposed to tell Gir?" Tak asked him in a weak, quivering voice. She began to shake and tears formed in her eyes once again. Dib had no idea, he hadn't meant for this. It was a taunt; it never was supposed to be like this.

It didn't seem real. He would never see Zim again? No more insults, pranks, dodging hazardous attempts at getting rid of him? Never again? Dib looked into Tak's eyes; she was heartbroken and devastated, most likely in shock. How could he have done this to another living being?

"What am I supposed to say to his computer?" Tak questioned him as a few tears fell from her eyes. She knew that there was no way for Dib to know the answers to these questions. She shook her head slowly and wiped away the tears on her shoulder. She could cry later, now she had to go home.

Tak shuffled past Dib slowly as the ashes fell with the snow, he listened to her leave, heard her choked attempts to keep from sobbing. Gaz left a few minutes after her to call for an ambulance and let their father know what happened. The purple moose drifted past without its trademark grin and there were slight tears forming in its eyes. Dib felt horrible. He had caused this.

He had gotten his wish right? He had won the war right? The Earth was saved, permanently, but… then why did he feel so bad? He won… didn't he?

As Dib sat there looking at his friend's, empty grave there were only two words repeating throughout his head. _My Fault… My Fault… My Fault…_

**So, it's been a while, Invader Zim fans. Since my last update I got a new apartment, a new office cubical with a window, and I got a brand new type of medication! Yay me. To celebrate my new meds, I decided I would reread my old story to see how it holds up. Three sentences in and I knew what had to be done. So here it is; chapter 1 rewritten. The next few chapters will be posted when they get done, expect a wait due to summer writers ready to get out of school this summer.**


	2. The Surgery

Tak looked down at Zim's body. He had broken at least four ribs, shattered both his arms and legs, fractured his skull and ruptured his squeedilysooch. His heart could have stopped beating at any moment during the walk home, but Zim remained defiant till the very end. Perhaps he was just confusing Death by explaining how he the "amazing Zim" could not be dead. Tak almost laughed when she remembered the body she was carrying.

She scowled at the damage as she set Zim down on a small cot in the medical room. It seemed weird to leave him here but it had to be done. Tak watched as the machines recognized his injuries with one quick scan and then started to attach wires and cables to his PAK to providing more energy. She shuddered and left to prepare herself just as the needles started to move to his body.

Much to her relief Mimi and Gir had been gone when she got home. While this denied her the chance for some much needed help it also saved her from explaining to the bots Zim's slim chances. Gir only would have distracted her. He was most likely out with Mimi getting some tacos and would be back any-

"Computer." Tak called out. The machine beeped regularly but it drew out and got lower._'No Please. No not now.'_ She asked fate quietly. However fortune was not on her side at this particular moment.

"What?" The machine called out, it was painfully obvious it was annoyed. Tak sighed; this was the worst time possible for it to revert to its defiant self. Perhaps even worse than that time she and Zim had been on a crash course with the roof because the computer refused to open up without "the password." Tak shuddered as she remembered the screaming.

"I need you to lay down a barrier around the medical bay. Also, run scans on Zim, give him some pain killers and sedate him if he wakes up." The computer was silent for a moment, Tak feared it would deny her request like so many times before but it responded a moment afterwards.

"Zim's vitals are low but holding. He has small amounts of radiation on his clothing and skin." There was a whirring sound in the walls around her. The sign of a scan being done on the hallway.

"And so do you… Mini moose exploded again didn't he." It wasn't a question, so she didn't respond. They both knew the answer and she assumed the computer didn't care enough to want to know why. She was still baffled as to why Zim had the thing in his PAK in the first place. If it went off in there then she wouldn't have had time to worry about his well being. She would have been all too busy picking up the pieces.

"I'll run him through the disinfectant and scrub him down." It droned. It seemed however that the computer didn't feel disgusted with her presence with its usual annoying tone. Perhaps it cared for Zim? The thought was dismissed as soon as it came; she knew that machines don't feel. The computer simulated its emotions because it was defective. A quick reminder to fix that and she was back on her way down the corridor.

Tak walked down the hall in silence. She needed to prepare herself for the inevitable jobs she would be forced to perform. Zim was damaged heavily, that wasn't all she was worried about. The computer would only be able to give her instructions, the procedures would have to be done by hand. She stepped into the preparation area and stood on the small square in the center of the room. As the disinfectant sprayed throughout the room she covered her antenna from the loud noise and burning smell.

Now that Tak thought on it, their entire races' medical equipment was severely outdated. It had always been the Irken motto that "If something's broken throw it away" and the tallest took this far too seriously. To the point of people even. Sickness shows weakness red had responded to the news. Typical Tallest's throwing away their useless drones like filthy trash she thought dryly. The cycle ended and she walked out.

The room Tak entered was rather long. Lining the walls there were lockers for the doctors they didn't have. In front of the lockers there was a long bench. This strangely reminded her of the academy, hundreds of Irkens all packed together in one room to get ready for training. She scowled at the memory of the annoying tall girls mocking her for being so short as she opened locker number two.

Inside there was a surgical overcoat colored industrial white, black gloves that went over her regular ones and some boots that had the same shiny black qualifications. She slipped her regular uniform off and then quickly donned the outfit.

Tak finished putting on the clothes and took several deep breaths to calm herself. She could not let Zim become a casualty of her own nervousness. Having never been trained as more than a field medic she felt uncomfortable in the new gear. The way the boots clung tightly to her feet and how the gloves, despite their looks, made her hands feel like surgical instruments themselves. It was all foreign.

Tak walked up to a nearby sink and removed both sets of gloves. She began to scrub away with cleansing soap as the gloves were disinfected. Looking up into the mirror Tak noticed she was sweating. She wiped her forehead with the side of her arm and shook herself of the fear. Once done cleaning she gripped both edges of the sink and looked into her own deep purple eyes.

"Are you ready?" Tak whispered to herself. She would have laughed if she weren't so nervous; it seemed like a stupid thing to do. But despite that it made her feel as though she was more prepared than her own reflection in the mirror, like she knew something it didn't. The computer allowed a screen to descend from the wire and pipe covered ceiling.

"Bulkheads around the medical bay are secured and reinforced. Barriers have been placed within the vents to prevent intrusion. Zim is stabilized and sedated… What now?" Tak nodded to herself. Everything was ready but she didn't want to move. She didn't want to go anywhere near the intensive care room.

Tak took one more deep breath, during which she reminded herself of the challenge. This was just another test. Something she had to complete to be able move on. She was an Irken invader, the very best of the best. She started with her right foot then her left and soon she was in the cleansing chamber once more. Both doors sealed and the process began once again.

Tak wasn't exactly worried that she would infect Zim. She had seen his daily scans; there wasn't a single germ in the entire lower base. It was more sterile than the human clean rooms. She had asked him once how he kept it so clear but he refused to answer anything but the cryptic response: "Everything has a cost." She had given up asking after a week as he repeated it like a broken record.

The cycle seemed to end much quicker than before and Tak was forced to get out. She walked slowly, listening to the sounds her footsteps made against the cold metal floor. The boots she was wearing made an annoying squeaking sound as she walked. Tak wondered how Gir could ever stand to have such a noise following him all the time. The door was suddenly upon her.

Tak waited and in no time it slid open allowing her to look around inside. Zim lay on the exact bed she had set him on before. His face was oddly serene and was barely marred by the rasping noise of his breath or the odd angles his arms and legs were bent at. His uniform had been removed and replaced by a simple white cloth. She strapped on a mask and a hair net as a medical table floated up beside Zim.

The computer's screen slowly floated from the ceiling and angled so she could see it without really having to look up. The screen flickered and twitched until three lines slid across. They each became jagged as the computer spoke to her, his voice oddly muffled.

"You will have to remove the bits of glass from his torso first." The machine spoke. Tak pealed back the white cloth covering him, revealing the dried blood and bits of glass. She reached to the small table and grabbed the tiny tweezers while leaning over him to get a better look.

Tak knew this would hurt him. The painkillers wouldn't be able to numb everything. The PAK would focus on his limbs first so he could get away from what had injured him if he needed to and then move on as he healed. She could barely comprehend the pain this would cause him… but it had to be done. One thing was for certain from all of this, the Dib would pay.

The small tool in her hand, she gripped the first piece of glass. Zim's screams of pain resounded throughout the empty halls as she worked.

* * *

Gaz stood in the hospital alone. Doctors, nurses, crying relatives of patients and patients themselves hurried past and around her. It was a scene of chaos as everyone went everywhere all the time. Odd looks were directed at her from time to time as it wasn't normal for small gothic eight year olds to hang out in hospitals alone. This would be unnerving to most but she just stood there, playing the Game Slave Two.

Dib had come out of the general infirmary after all his bones had been reset. The screams of pain would have been a cause to be joyful for her but for some odd reason, she found them giving her a very nasty headache. She had taken some aspirin to relive the pain about an hour ago and now she waited.

Gaz had called their father as soon as they had checked in. She had taken two seconds to explain that 'Stupid Dib and his Stupid friend blew up the school.' The first thing he asked was if she was hurt in the explosion. This annoyed her to no end as it should be common knowledge that she could take care of herself. He could pick her up but couldn't make time to come over to visit Dib until next January.

She could hear a doctor explaining medical procedures to Dib inside the room. He was carefully telling him that there was no risk in getting one's head downsized; in fact it was apparently a great learning opportunity to several of the younger doctors. The doctor finished and was met with a loud yell.

"My Heads Not Big!" Dib yelled angrily and as if he were in great distress. Gaz winced at the loud noise, but continued playing her game none the less. Everyone in the hall stopped and looked at the door before registering what he had said, causing many to shake their heads in pity of the poor boy's denial. The doctor finished that it was just a suggestion before leaving. Gaz walked into the now open door.

There, on the patient bed, was Dib. He was in a practical full body cast and had one of his eyes covered by medical tape and cotton. Every limb was held up in the air by cables attached to the ceiling causing him to look like a dead cartoon cat. Gaz chuckled to herself as she sensed his pain, but stopped quickly when he didn't say anything. Odd.

Dib's one uncovered eye was downcast. It may have been the swelling but it seems something had made him sad and given him a pessimistic outlook. Gaz scowled, he was sad and thoughtful because of something someone or something that wasn't her did? That was her job and hers alone. It could have just been the doctor mentioning his head but by the looks in his face it was something more.

Gaz sat down in one of the visitor's chairs and continued to play her game, Dib just laid there with his ridiculous pose ignoring her. His silence began to agitate her. It could be more serious than she had originally thought, he did kill Zim… but didn't he always want that? Finally the silence became more than she could bare and, as unspeakable and uncharacteristic it was of her, she spoke first.

"What's your problem?" Gaz asked with more anger than intended. Dib winced at her voice and turned his head as best he could to look at her better. She noticed his face looked worse than she had originally gathered. It was puffy and red. His eye watered with the lingering pain of all his injuries. It seems that someone had forgotten to give him painkillers.

"I won…" He groaned out. Gaz knew there was more to it than that. Something was bothering Dib.

"I mean… that's great right? I did it. He's dead." Dib continued to talk in a halfhearted way. Gaz toyed with the idea that half his brains had been fried by the explosion but excused it when it began to bore her. Perhaps it was just Dib being weird? No this was on a different level altogether.

"I am the superior being then…" Dib sighed as he was once again drawn back to that horrible image in his head. Tak, crying while carrying Zim's lifeless corpse back to his base. It was all he could think about, and with nothing else to occupy his time but thinking, it was driving him crazy. Guilt was usually reserved for when he did something wrong to another human, not an alien.

"Things can go back to normal now then…" Gaz droned when Dib refused to say any more. He flinched ever so slightly at this, causing her to smile. She did not have time to explore this verbal hit as one of the nurses came in and told her that their father was waiting outside the hospital to pick her up. She left Dib without another word.

**Yes I'm writing some more… Because I personally hate unfinished stories. It's like everyone gets stuck in story limbo playing cards for eternity. So based on reception I with either rip this from my computer and fanfiction and destroy it forever or I keep it on here and finish the story.**

**So if you're reading this and you hate the whole Idea let me know! I want curses, I want yelling, and I want full caps hatred conveyed so that I don't ever want to write again. And If some great god of mercy has blessed you with some pity for my stories then I want to know what you like about it so I know what not to change.**


	3. The Aftermath

Hours later Tak slumped down in a chair. She was covered in pinkish blood, bits of green flesh and other things she dared not think of at the moment. Sweat poured down the front of her face and down her back, soaking her shirt and blending with the blood. She was not too tired to think of the horrid liquids staining the front of the apron she wore but tired enough to not be able to do anything about it at the moment.

The computer had to help her with several of the bones. Some were so shattered Tak needed to replace them with one of the emergency grown bones. That had taken four hours in itself. She needed to make sure that not a single shard was left inside to block the growth or Zim would lift his arms up for a Victory pose and cut his shoulder from the inside, probably shredding muscle with her luck.

Tak then had to place the bone perfectly in position and reattach the muscle and ligaments with some dissolvable medical gel. That done the flesh had to be sewn up twice, once halfway into the wound and once more on the outside to prevent abnormal growth. One of his ocular implants had to be replaced, forcing her to remove his left eye and replace the machine behind it, then reattach the eye.

The worst part was his hand. Zim had practically blown it off in the explosion. Tak had needed to place the replacement bones in bio-gel and cut away the hanging flesh to prevent abnormal re-growth. He was lucky that they had some stored away in the equipment room where Gir and Mimi wouldn't find it or he would have had to get a mechanical replacement.

Tak looked down at her torso; so much blood stained the apron. Zim would have been dead after losing so much of it but he, being overly prepared, had apparently stored away a pint of his blood each week for the first year of being stationed on Earth. This much alone left her enough to satisfy several of the Dib's vampire creatures for months. Tak had only needed to keep his heart beating long enough for her to fix everything.

The computer had only been a little helpful. Often complaining and repeatedly reminding Tak that she was not its master and it could simply stop following her orders, at any time which would lead to the death of Zim. It would then conclude that she was at its mercy. She had to resort to Down-on-knees begging to get it to work sometimes. And each second she begged, several plans of the war crimes she would use against the machine for its defiance floated around her head.

Despite all the trials in fixing Zim, Tak as usual, had pulled though with almost flying colors, while dragging Zim's almost lifeless body behind her. She had no idea why she worked so hard to save him; several months ago she would have done anything to end him. She got up from the newly, blood stained chair and made her way to the disinfecting room.

Tak leaned against the wall. Letting her head drift forward until it rested upon the cool metal. As her PAK began to recharge she became more aware of her current condition. Even more concerning than how tired she felt, was the stinging sensation coming from her claws. It progressively got worse as she walked down the hall. By the time she reached the Doctor's equipment room locker 2 it felt as if her hands were dipped in concentrated water.

Tak quickly tore off the gloves and looked down at her claws. Each one of her fingers had large scrapes and cuts all over them. A few had been chipped and the sharp nails at the end were dulled or broken. She growled at this, but it died down to an almost whimper of pain as she removed the filthy clothes she was wearing. She suppressed the pain with a tremendous amount of willpower and removed everything before walking into the cleansing chambers farther down the hall.

Being almost completely bare, Tak would have felt nervous and awkward, however, the base was empty. Zim was practically on his deathbed and Mimi, Gir and Mini moose were upstairs, cut off from the medical wing. Despite this fact however it was abnormal for Irkens, especially females, to remove their clothing for a period longer than two minutes. The doctors and nurses were an exception of course as it was a very messy job and they had to make themselves presentable. Such as protocol for Tak now, even as such she refused to take off her breast wrapping. It was the Irken equivalent of a corset designed to make females less distracting. It would be far too weird to be completely clothe less.

The cleansing room was lined with metal tubes with towels hanging on small hooks outside of them. The tubes would be filled with broken up water. On Irk the liquids were far less concentrated than that of Earths. The water's pollutants had to be removed and the water, almost evaporated to the point of being more gas than liquid for it to lose its burning qualities for Irkens. It still felt unnatural to her.

Tak took only a minute to get clean and dry off. She found the cleansing chambers to be very small and dark. The water only worsened things as it stung her shredded hands like a swarm of angry death bees. Once out of the shower she disinfected her hands and had the computer wrap them up with the softest bandages they had and sealed that with medical tape. She wouldn't be able to open Earth doors for a while without help.

Tak marched away and, using her PAK's mechanical legs, pulled on her newly cleaned uniform. The purple and pink-purple clothing comforted her. The way her gloves and boots fit perfectly despite the bandaging, the way the colors matched her PAK and eyes, and the way her black cape swished behind her as she walked. It was all familiar and seemed to tell her that everything would go back to a form of normal soon.

Tak rubbed her eyes tiredly as she walked. It was late and she had expended a lot of energy on repairing Zim. On the brighter side, he had greater chances on surviving now that he wasn't bleeding out of thirty or forty wounds. The only problem would be if he caught a virus, she reminded herself of the base's cleanliness, which had only been an annoyance before now. It seemed that Zim had inadvertently helped himself.

Tak passed the Infirmary window, which connected to the hall, she saw Zim there. His breathing had improved after she had reset and reattached a few broken ribs. Now it just looked as if he was sleeping. If not for the thirty or so stitched up cuts beneath the stained cloth she wouldn't have worried at all.

Zim was one stubborn Irken that was for sure. Few could have walked away from mini moose exploding intact. She reminded herself that this was Zim, the tallest constantly claimed that he was he was spawned in the deepest circle of hell to kill them or put them into an early grave if he couldn't do it indirectly. She chuckled at this. How Zim could have gone so long tormenting the tallest, two of the most powerful beings in the known galaxy, and get away with pride, ignorance and wellbeing unscathed was truly amazing.

Tak's thoughts turned to the Dib human. He had survived as well. She had no idea what it was that kept Dib going. Zim was more supplied, trained, and focused now that she was here but he still stood fast to save a race that hates him. They were both alike in that sense. Constantly attempting to appease the people who want nothing to do with them. Zim had learned the hard way what happens when you try too hard, Dib still had a few lessons to learn.

The elevator was in front of her. The trip seemed to have taken no time at all when in reality it had taken quite a few minutes. Tak knew they were waiting for her up there. They would want to know what was going on if Mini moose didn't tell them.

The moose would know what it had done to Zim so she would have to wipe that part of its memory to erase the guilt. The flying doom machine was sort of the base's mascot and the only other reliable henchman she could call upon when Zim was incapacitated and sometimes when he was perfectly fine too. Adding that to her mental checklist she tapped her foot nervously as the computer sent the lift upwards.

* * *

Mimi stood on a tall stool in the kitchen. The poor robot had gotten trapped by Gir long enough for him to get her in an apron. The one now stained with ketchup… They were making pancakes. The defective robot had told her on many occasions throughout the process that Irken Zim would come up from his labs and praise them both for making such delicious pancakes. Mimi knew otherwise.

Something was different. There had been no yelling from Zim at Gir for not telling him over the communications about where he was going. Tak hadn't patted her on her head when they walked in the front door. Something had happened… She suspected the dooms day device disguised as a moose.

The moose that lives in the house with them had been acting odd ever since they got home. It was avoiding them. She could not read the emotions within its empty eyes or blank smile, but its actions were not corresponding with its profile. It was upset or sad, staring at the ground instead of at her. Emotions dictating it's actions.

Only inferior machines feel emotions. Gir was the perfect example. He could be something great, perfect for whatever he would be assigned at. The tallest were inferior builders and hadn't taken the time to give Gir a personality, as such; he built his own from whatever was available. Human TV was what was most available to him. And so he became a shadow of his true potential. Defective like his master.

Not the way Tak had made her. She had been scrap in the past, lifeless and without purpose. Then her mistress had come along and built her of the trash, going against everything Irken to make something great. Tak had given her awareness and reason. They could have gone anywhere from that point: Started battle training for her test or taken over the galaxy but Tak had insisted against logic that they needed to end Zim. She hadn't objected and they sped on to Earth.

That was where the trouble had started. Her mistress had tried again and again, becoming more frantic in her hunt to take Zim's mission. Mimi could only watch as she revealed her true feelings. It fit perfectly into the emotion's profile: She hated Zim and then slowly became possessive of him, saving him from doom time and time again claiming he was hers to destroy. She had approached the subject with Tak but her mistress became irrational and emotional at the very thought, only confirming her suspicions.

It had only been a matter of time before Tak wore herself out. It was then that the Dib destroyed their base when redirected by Zim. How convenient that the only person they could turn to with the technology to help was the Irken "Invader." Tak hadn't liked it any more than she did. Now they waited for the tallest to send a supply drop with a new base. Six months was an illogical time to have waited with no word from their leaders but her mistress had insisted that they wait.

Mimi had no idea what her master saw in Zim. He had improved with Tak's help but he was still defective. Irken's like machines, weren't supposed to feel emotions, Zim did, she knew for a recorded fact. The anger and self obsessions were key factors in his personality.

A noise registered. Mimi ran it through her memory processors and identified it as an elevator ascending towards her current point of conciseness. The only elevator's in the room was in the trashcan. This process took only a millisecond before she turned to the trash can. She observed silently, as always, when her mistress appeared from the nearby trash can.

A quick scan of her body language identified that she was exhausted. Unregistered parts of Mimi's mind made note of this, telling her that her master was weakened and needed to be protected in the event of an attack. It then noted that her pose and tension levels were not hostile. Tak nodded to her SIR unit and then turned to Gir, who was still too occupied to notice her.

Tak took advantage of his unawareness and began to sneak out. Mimi watched her go and made a few hand gestures, she wanted to go with her away from Gir. Her mistress looked thoughtful for a moment then shook her head. Mimi saluted and returned to stirring Gir's pancake batter. Her mistress would let her know what had happened soon enough.

Tak made her way to the next elevator that would take her down to the guest quarters but a knock at the door inturupted her walk. She reactivated her disguise and went to answer it. Mimi returned to the task that had been set upon her by Gir as she reached for the knob.

A brief flash of hope told her that maybe Tak had finally killed the defective Zim. Then everything would turn back to normal. They could appease the tallest with a giant planet sized snack and then they would get a real mission. She could leave Gir to fend for himself at long last! Mimi thought about Gir sitting on the side of an Irken Trash yard rusting away… Her gaze drifted to the small robot. He was singing deranged songs about piggy's taking over the world.

Something overloaded Mimi's circuitry and she started to stir again. Her eyes turned a familiar neon blue as she hummed along with Gir's song. All protocols forgotten a new factor added into her processing line. And so it was, at least for a moment, Mimi forgot about what her mistress was so tired about.

**I'm trying to update every day because tomorrow I go on my much needed vacation. What better to leave you guys with than a few chapters? Maybe a hug or two? Special thanks to my 6 reviewers, you all keep me cautiously optimistic about this story and possible future stories' reception. A small impact is still an impact.**

**To all of you more optimistic readers; I guarantee you, I can still kill Zim. If anyone has a quarter I need to flip it to find out what happens. Oh and a cookie to anyone who figures out how I would kill him if I decide to.**

**I hadn't planned on making this very action-packed because 67.59%**(My report files did the math for me)**of the time that's when stories based on characters that are not your own go "downhill" however if you would like me to tell me so in a comment. I read all of them.**


	4. Detectives and Emotions

The snow fell softly to the ground. Each drifted silently from dark clouds that floated unseen in the night sky. Like tiny angles floating to the earth to spread a cleansing joy to the world, only to be tarnished by its impurities. The cold wind blew small flakes across the seemingly empty world. All humans were inside, hiding from the freezing wind and sub zero temperatures, all but one.

Investigator Wilson stood atop a large pile of rubble. Because of the large police spotlights the entire thing was illuminated despite the black night sky. The officers that had put them there had all dispersed for the night. Typical, he thought bitterly about his colleagues. It wasn't the first time no one offered a single hand in investigating a possible crime scene. He often spent long nights, alone, in the cold or scorching temperatures.

Just as well. There was nothing for him to go home to. No wife in the picture anymore and therefore no children to speak of. After a few years the old, tiny and dusty apartment didn't really offer much comfort to him anymore. Work occupied his day and night life nowadays.

Many had claimed his 'obsession' with unexplainable cases like these was unhealthy and offered to pay for therapy or to take him out to dinner. Pointless. He had been to therapy and it hadn't helped at all. Some know-it-all idiot claiming that because he missed her he was filling in the gap in his life with work and obsessions. Over one thousand dollars down the drain and no impact in his life, some help.

People had slowly given up on helping him and it only made life easier. As Wilson had more time on his hands with no one bothering him with anything not work related he had begun to notice several anomalies. Things were happening, bad things. Giant hamsters, rampaging houses with legs, mall break ins, super rat infestations and enormous hotdog stands just to name a few. Other passed these off simple coincidences but he knew better.

This particular case had practically jumped into his hands when no one else wanted to go searching for evidence they didn't believe was there out in the cold. His 'superiors' had claimed that a pipe most likely broke and then bust aflame, igniting the cafeteria food and blowing the place apart. It was a likely story, not unheard of for these old and decrepit buildings. Most believed it was the answer to the whole explosion, no one was irreparably hurt or suing so why should they care any more than they needed to? Wilson knew otherwise.

He hadn't bothered in pointing out that the rubble didn't shoot out from all sides of the building lunchroom, it had slanted away from the playground. Not a single explosive was ever designed to be there. Another flaw was the trace radiation slowly decaying on each brick. It didn't add up to anything they were saying.

Wilson slowly bent down and brushed away the accumulating snow. There in the dirt; a slightly noticeable footprint. Another set joined it farther along. They were obviously children's with how small they were but that didn't surprise him, it was a school after all. What concerned the detective was the fact that they seemed to be heading into the destruction, to away from it. A lead.

He slowly followed along; having to backtrack every now and again to make sure he was going the right way until he came upon a small hole. Metal had been bent away as if it were nothing, large rocks tossed away from it like softballs. It stopped where he could vaguely make out the outline of a small figure at the bottom. The footsteps then slowly proceeded away from the hole in a new direction. Each was a bit more pronounced as if the figure had gained extra weight, perhaps the child from the hole.

There had only been one child entering into the hospital from the explosion. He was in no position to be interrogated about any other survivors. Three little girls had been found; one related to the boy, each knew nothing of the explosion other than when it happened. No one else had bothered to check the attendance, so only he knew that there were two other's on the playground during the 'accident' neither had last names on record and were known as 'Zim' and 'Tak'.

Neither were supposed to exist apparently. No parents, no other records, birthdates exedra. The only thing aside from that which made them interesting was that they always happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Every 'accident' and at least one had been a recorded bystander. It seemed that they were connected or really unlucky.

Wilson shook these thoughts from his mind as he followed the path of the footsteps. They were heading into the nearby suburbs. This would not be uncommon, someone gets slightly hurt and a sibling or friend takes them home. But it was just too convenient that they hadn't even called the police to file a complaint about their school blowing up in the middle of the day.

The path led him to a small ring of houses connected to the rest of the neighborhood. One small house, squished between two larger ones. It had green walls and a purple roof. From the roof a large satellite pointed at the sky. It was ominous the way the windows glowed red, and how it seemed to tower over him despite, its small size. Wilson grinned; he had finally found proof that he wasn't wasting his time with these cases.

He slowly made his way past the creepy gnomes and stood in front of the door. He reached into one of the trench coats pockets and gripped his badge. Wilson's other hand slid to his side where a large pistol rested comfortably. Slowly he popped the strap holding it in off and pulled it into his pocket. Best to be sure. Whoever lives in this house knew something about the explosion. He would find out.

* * *

Tak gripped the door handle. She tried to turn the knob but when she pulled it refused to budge. This was unacceptable; she could not force this door to bend to her will. She pulled harder but with no avail. Deranged thoughts shot through her exhausted mind. Why won't the door open? Is it stuck? Am I stuck? Will I be trapped here of all places? Her mind shifted into panic when she looked down to her hands.

It was only then that Tak noticed the bandaging. It was making the knob simply slide from her grasp, despite the iron grip she possessed. She decided that the human on the other side of the door could simply believe that no one was home and move on with their life. It would be best not to answer anyway, it wasn't her house.

Tak sauntered away from the door ignoring the hard knocks following the first. She thought briefly about activating Zim's security but thought better of it, walking gnomes that fire lasers would only attract unwanted attention. Nine times out of ten they didn't even work, simply circling the offender, dispensing a dancing robo-gopher and playing oddly entertaining music. Coincidence? Of course not. This was Zim's base after all, he often liked to remind her of it while they worked. Just like that ignorant computer of his.

Tak threw open the recharge chamber doors. The room itself was no larger than an average broom closet and was lined with screens and machinery. The entire thing glowed bright pink, like most of the base. He may have mentioned once that Zim only had one in the entire base but it offered no problems as the room could recharge several bodies at one time.

Bases like these were the absolute final fallback of the Irken race. Tallest Miyuki, Irk rest her soul, had decided that if the worst were to happen and the Irken home world destroyed, all surviving members of the race would survive temporarily in the Invader's bases. Ironically she did this after a visit to the lineup of her possible successors after Spork. Luckily and against almost all odds, tallest red and purple managed to salvage what was left of Irk after Zim's 'accident'.

How paradoxical that Zim was to receive a perfectly functioning base for his totally secret mission. Anyone sent here would be subject to horrors and insanity few dare to think about. If only those fools had thought far ahead enough to put in a long range self destruct system… She sighed as the machine registered her will to rest. If only.

Three large cables descended from the ceiling and attached to her PAK and head. They lifted her off the ground about a foot before the process started. Tak's brain shut down as her PAK went into sleep mode. The suppressors no longer applied her mind was filled to the brim with over-emotional dreams and wishes. And despite her no longer relevant denial, most involved Zim.

* * *

The Membrane household contained thousands of high tech devices that were years ahead of anything most people had in their homes today. Even the toast was ten times better than every other house in the world. Despite this fact, a little girl with purple hair remained bored.

Being snowed in, having completed all games, and memorized all game guides Gaz sat in complete boredom. Her father had left for work once again and left her with enough disgusting synthetic food to last a nuclear war. But food was not entertaining. The phone was out so she couldent call friends even if she had any. Most likely she would have ordered pizza and forced them to come here despite the horrible weather.

She was playing the game slave two until the screen flashed something. _No_ It flashed again a bit slower this time, she dared not read the words lest her worst nightmare come true. _You will not disobey m-_The game died from lack of power. Gaz's hands lowered the game to her lap, her eye twitched and she beamed it at the nearest couch. It landed softly and did not break, which only infuriated the girl even further.

She searched around the room franticly looking for something to fill the void. Gaz's newly exposed eyes fell upon the TV remote. Snatching it up as if it might disappear any moment she switched the flat screen TV on. Static and white noise, nothing distracting… The girl could feel them getting closer with every heartbeat.

What she tried so hard to hide and protect herself from were slowly creeping in. It would only be a matter of time before they got in. Gaz took a deep breath and started upstairs. It seemed to take forever and all the while they got even closer. Perhaps Dib had some batteries in his keyboard computer? It wasn't as if he would need them. He was to busy laying alone in a cold hospital room, as the result of his own stupidity.

Dib… Pathetic fool didn't know what not to mess with. Be it her or Zim was not the issue. He simply had no idea when to leave well enough alone on that day. Gaz couldn't even bring herself to say the words but she demanded her mind to focuses on Dib as a temporary distraction.

Ever since he destroyed that Weenie stand after being convinced by Zim that he was planning to fill the earth with meat explosives the Alien had doubled in power. It was Tak that had redirected and retrained him but it was Zim who chose to listen to her. Dib could have been something unstoppable if he turned to her guidance or that of their dad's but he chose to believe he was the 'lone defender of Earth.' His pathetic fairy tale had gotten her out of school for the next month yes but it was none the less annoying.

Gaz threw open her brothers door and began to search. She started with the keyboard, breaking it in half, nothing, next his alarm clock, pulling the screwed in back off like it was made of foam peanuts. Her final attempt involved tearing his camera open; the batteries fell to the floor. Her mouth fell open as she reached for them. It was logical as Dib always was ready to take a picture of Zim.

Her unsteady hands knocked one away, it rolled about a foot and stopped right at Dib's heating vent. _You will pay for this one._ Gaz all but screamed inside her head just before it fell into the dark abyss, never to be seen again. Slowly she turned around, as if what she was hiding from all these years had taken a physical form just for this particular occasion.

Something warm and wet stained her face, smearing gothic makeup. Gaz ran to her room and fell onto the floor, before crawling onto her bed. It wasn't fair. Dib was in the hospital, Dad was always at work, there were no batteries in the house and Mo-

She stopped herself. Gaz reached up and felt under her eyes, when her hands pulled back there was a wet, clear liquid that was smeared a type of purple black. The tears continued to fall as she wondered exactly what was wrong with her at the moment. This couldn't be. She wasn't weak. She wasn't like _her_ she wasn't a whiner. The tears stopped and she wiped their defiling trails from her face.

She walked into the bathroom and cleared the makeup from her face with a small cotton ball. Once she looked presentable again, Gaz looked inside of her squinting eyes. She was not weak. She was not like Dib, Dad or that pathetic M-Mother they had once had. She was Gaz, she does not fear, she does not feel.

She slipped on her sleeping clothes and threw the ones she had once been wearing across the room in a forced uncaring mood. Gaz brushed her teeth, got under the covers and stared at the ceiling. As she went to bed in her cutely creepy room she repeated those words to herself. Despite all the defiance in her body, the tears continued to fall.

**Hello my faithful reviewers. I'm so happy I have nine of you. You guys are the reason I didn't rip this from Fanfiction lest I be tempted to take the easy way out. For some reviewers, I will finish this. It is a matter of personal honor.**

**My apologies for this late update but I got home a bit later than expected last night. I hope I got the emotional build up right for the idea. Yes something will happen soon. On a much related note: I want someone to tell me if I should kill him or not. First person to do it takes the ENTIRE cake. I have the basic outlines and ideas of how each would happen and I just need to fill in the details of when, and why. So let me know please.**


	5. Death and Dreams

**Okay guys this is chapter five of The fault. Thank you for sticking with me so far and I have to ask you to read this ENTIRE chapter before flaming and or trying to kill me. Now that that is over with On with the story!**

Tak looked down at Zim. He lay peacefully on the med bay bed. His chest slowly rose and fell in sync with the rhythmic beeping of the many machines attached to him. His condition remained unchanged from the night before but he was alive none the less, and for that she was thankful.

She thought to herself on how ironic the situation was. One swipe of her claw and his chest would stop rising and falling. He would die and by her hand, it would be so easy. Tak unconsciously twirled a few of the wires that provided his PAK with energy around her finger. And yet her mind gently turned its attention to his peaceful face.

Tak allowed the wires to drop back as she reached out on an impulse and stroked his angular antenna softly. Her eye lids began to fall a bit, as if she were tired or daydreaming. As a small smile slowly crept to her face a warm softness seemed to drape around her. It was as if the air had turned into a thick gel that was oppressive, but comfortably so. Every motion seemed slower than usual. But she continued as if nothing were happening to make this different.

A surge of energy shot through her from the PAK, it felt as if her very bones had begun to vibrate. Tak fell to the ground with a cry of pain as the comforting slowness disappeared. She shook herself of such sentimental emotions and stood up to face him one last time. Zim remained unconsciously serene as he breathed in slowly and then released it. Pathetic fool could die any moment.

Tak didn't have the energy to think about where those thoughts had come from. She simply threw one last caring gaze at him and turned to leave. She hadn't taken more than two steps when the monitors started to go wild. His heart rate started to skyrocket. Despite her past distain she immediately turned around with panic lining her face.

Zim's wounds seemed to gush blood as his erratic breathing tore open his stitches, Tak looked around quickly and grabbed a syringe from a nearby counter, she fumbled it in her own hands as she attempted to inject it into is arm. It fell into the bed and disappeared into the folds of the newly blood stained white sheet covering him. She searched for it with one shaking hand as she grabbed a cloth with the other.

Tak pressed as hard as she could on his torso to try and stop the bleeding when she finally gripped the syringe. She quickly moved it over to his arm only to be smacked in the face by one of Zim's arms as he began to have a seizure. Wires were pulled from machines, tables were overturned and somehow the computer had no idea what was going on. That or he decided to let Zim have a little accident.

Tak fell to the floor and the syringe flew up into the air. It fell in somewhat of an arch before stabbing her in the leg. The Irken gasped as the liquid was injected into her. She pulled the syringe out of her leg and attempted to stand. It felt as if she was carrying about ten pounds of dead weight instead of a leg now. She stumbled in her attempt to get to the nearby drawer where she could get something to slow the flow of the sedative, but it moved to fast for her and soon she fell to the floor.

Tak desperately dragged her body to the cabinet and pulled out several of the containers and throwing them away, scattering surgical instruments and bandages across the floor. She could feel it as she was no longer able to hold herself up. Her body fell like a bag of rocks to the floor. Offering a convenient front row view as Zim stopped seizing. All the monitors flat lined and eventually turned off.

As Tak was right beside Zim's bed she could not see his body, she didn't have to. His blood slowly dripped off of the cloth and pooled onto the floor. It only took a moment for it to start to soak into her cloths and mix with her tears of defeat. It wasn't fair. She had worked so hard to save him and now it was all for nothing! Tears slid silently down her face as she no longer had the willpower to deny them their natural flows.

A computer that rested on one of the surgical counters had been knocked to the edge of the small table. Half of it prepared to fall on top of her. She watched helplessly as if fell down, on an inevitable path to crush her head. She closed her eyes and felt a tremendous force on the front of her face.

* * *

Gaz woke up early that morning. This was not unexpected. She got up every day at six… Five in the morning was pushing it. Despite the early start she got up quicker than a regular day. She dressed in her usual dark attire, threw on the skull necklace and brushed her teeth in five minutes flat. On this particular morning, if any observer was awake enough to notice, one might have said that the small gothic girl might be nervous.

The way she shook slightly before looking over her shoulder, as if someone was following her within her own home. The way she seemed to be walking faster than normal though the house. Her hands shook slightly as she pulled the burnt toast from the toaster. She tried her hardest to eat it slowly but was done in two bites.

Gaz grabbed her dead Game Slave two and some cash from their emergency fund. She reached into the closet, slipped on a purple and black scarf that covered her mouth and a grayish black zip up coat. She ran through the mental checklist before hurrying to the front door despite the obvious fact it was blocked by snow.

Apparently two tons of packed snow did not pose and obstacle to this little girl as she shoved the door open as if it were made of Styrofoam. Gaz looked around for possible danger halfheartedly; no one was ever awake at this time. As she did not expect to see anyone she did not see a man hidden in the shadows by a deep grey overcoat as he flowed her every move with his eyes.

Gaz didn't bother looking both ways as she crossed every deserted street in the city; the snow was too high to be driving in. Or even walking in for most that weren't as light as she was; in fact most of her footprints were but ghost-trails to the rest of the worlds. Unfortunately the over coated man was good at following almost nonexistent trails.

As she went, the dark clouds overhead began to drop snow on the world. Disgusting, grey with pollution flakes began to fall to the ground. The wind picked up slightly and blew snow in her face. All of which the small gothic girl ignored as she continued in her path. These small hindrances would not slow her down enough to let them catch up. This was a race she could not lose, not now.

Gaz walked briskly and with a purpose. She wasn't trying to outrun them, only avoid them long enough to get there. She dropped the Game Slave two at one point during her walk. She cursed to herself quietly before picking the expensive machine up out of the snow and brushing the blackened flakes off of the screen. It was then that she heard them.

Footsteps upon snow. Quiet and careful. They stopped only a moment after she stopped. Gaz carefully put her Game Slave away and knelt down as if she were tying her shoe. They started again, slower than before. She got up quickly and began to move at the same brisk pace. Perhaps this stranger simply happened upon her exact zigzagging path by incident? Unlikely but she clung to that hope, as she did not think far enough ahead to bring her trusty bat.

Gaz rounded a corner and then another one before pressing her back against the brick wall, remaining still and quiet as to become invisible. The footsteps became louder but stopped soon enough. She was so close to this person that she could hear his breathing. It was slow and ragged but quiet. He sounded as if he had smoked for years and still could not get the ash out of his lungs. There was a slight shuffle; she assumed the stranger was getting down on one knee to examine the path better. All noise stopped for a moment, and then it started. Like gravel being grinded up to powder; he chuckled. He knew.

Gaz slowly stepped backwards; she pushed her feet deep into the snow and then lighter on the next one and the next one. All going down the path until they became almost invisible. She then backtracked to the nearby alley and ran. That little trap would only confuse him a little she knew but maybe the trail would have gone cold by then with all of the falling snow.

The snow picked up with the wind and was soon a blinding wall of grey. Gaz marched on despite all of this; she knew this path all too well. The building appeared before her then, like a giant beacon of hope to be clung to. The wind howled and tried it's hardest to push her back but she pressed on despite the stinging snow and biting frost.

Turning back she saw him. A darker shade of gray stumbling menacingly through the dark wall of snow. He wore what appeared to be welding goggles under his hood to keep out the snow and his haphazardly shaven beard made it look as if he were a corpse otherwise. Despite her could exterior, the invincible little girl felt a small pang of fear as he gained on her. She turned and ran harder than before, slicing through the wind like a hot knife.

Gaz reached the front of the building and threw open the door. She wasted no time in slamming it shut and locking it. A nearby clerk raised an eyebrow but lowered it once he recognized the small gothic girl. She didn't even bother nodding to him before slamming down two large packs of batteries with the cash to pay for them. He in turn handed her the change without looking up from a PEOPLE magazine two months old.

Gaz looked around and then sat on a small bench in front of a large window that would reveal much, but mostly covered up with posters and advertisements. She flipped up one of the corners and looked out. There was a large mass of nothing that limited her vision but as far as she could tell he was gone. She pulled open the back of her Game Slave and inserted the two batteries before booting it up. The familiar, vampire piggies screen popped up.

Reality seemed to fade away as she hit the start button. Feelings, worries, and fears all melted away as she killed pig after pig. There was no better way to hide from everyone and everything than to play this game. As it all became more and more irrelevant her mind slowly forgot the man who had been following her not a moment before.

She had no idea what that man had wanted with her and as far as she was concerned now, he didn't exist any longer. He was outside in the cold hopefully freezing, and she was inside in the warm, saving herself from the worst nightmares her mind could imagine.

* * *

Tak's eyes shot open. Her breathing was erratic and she was soaked with blood. Zim was dead and it was her fault. In a fit of hysteria she tried to gut up, the lasting effects of the sedative made this difficult but she managed. Slowly she crawled to a nearby wall and sat against it. Resting her back against the cool metal. It was biting and cold to the touch but she was far too busy attempting to stabilize her breathing and crying. Despite these pitiful attempts, sobs reverberated through the room.

Tak slowly stood up and stumbled out the door. She dared not look back at Zim's lifeless corpse. Blindly she walked into a nearby washroom and grabbed a towel. She wiped the sickly liquid from her face and looked in the mirror. Her eyes were sunken and dim, her antennas were bent and drooping and her sweat soaked face… Sweat?

Tak looked down at the towel. The white cloth was damp with liquid but it was not blood. That didn't make sense. Hadn't she been lying in his blood before she had passed out? Slowly she gripped the edges of the sink and retched at the thought of Zim's dead body lying on that table. The blood slowly dripping down from the cloth that covered him in a hellish rhythm, drip… drip.

Tak turned her thoughts from this and wandered out the door. She backtracked her last trail of footsteps and found the sleeping chambers. There, in the middle of the room, one of the cables had fallen from the ceiling. It looked as if it had been torn from it violently. She gazed at this uncomprehendingly, Zim was dead, and she had seen him die firsthand no less.

The pieces slowly began to fall into place. The pipe, the lack of blood, the grogginess. The most logical thing that could have happened was she had somehow broken the cable and fallen to the floor, causing nightmares of Zim dying. But… It had seemed so real… Tak turned around quickly and made her way to the nearest elevator. She had to make sure.

She entered the kitchen to find Mimi deactivated in the sink, Gir asleep in his pancake batter and Mini moose floating silently in the corner. The rest of the kitchen was a warzone with all the food decorating the ceiling and walls. Some of it didn't even look like food… but then again, it rarely did.

Tak threw these thoughts from her mind and hopped into the trashcan. It immediately took her down to the med bay where she stepped off. That familiar slowness took over once again. One step seemed to take an hour, which was occupied with disturbing and fearful thoughts. Images of Zim lying in a pool of his own bodily fluids because she couldn't give him a simple sedative. It would be her fault if he died here, not the Dibs.

The med bay door opened slowly and water vapor obstructed her view for a moment. It cleared to reveal Zim. He breathed calmly and without faltering. Tak let out a sigh of relief when she realized she had been holding her breath. She worried for nothing. Zim was alive and he would stay that way unless some evil god of bad luck struck him down.

Tak fell into a chair next to him. She could feel her PAK start to recharge but despite this fact she felt undeniably tired. That wouldn't be bad would it? To close ones eyes for but a minute. Zim wouldn't mind, he's not going anywhere. Tak's head fell into her hands as she promptly fell into a deep and restful sleep.

**HA HA HA. How many of you hate me for that first part? But seriously now, I couldn't kill him. The M.M.O.R. (mass majority of reviewers) demanded that I don't kill him. To all of you who wanted me to kill him: you should have told me so in a review. I've got twelve who told me not to and there are only twelve reviews, what does this say?**

**Love and respect to all who are reviewing this, I have two choices ahead of me now. Have Zim attempt revenge on Dib or Have Zim forgive Dib and I want YOUR OPPINION. Oh and I am going somewhere with Detective Wilson… I just don't know where. Suggestions in review or would be much appreciated.**


	6. The Illusions

A scratching noise. It sounded as if some sort of brick was being picked at by someone with long nails. It had no structure, no organization no comforting feeling. In fact, it was very, very, unnerving. Trying to ignore it only seemed to make the noise louder. More noises would come into range then, as if they had been waiting around the corner for that moment. Cars honking, crashing and screeching as planes roared overhead along with people shouting, stomping, talking and screaming. They all assaulted one's mind until they stood on the brink of madness.

_But we don't want to go there right now._

Dib opened his eyes. Or eye, for what it was worth. All the noises seemed to stop as he did. The only one left was the clock ticking in the corner of the room. The only light came from a dull and worn down stand up lamp in the other corner of the room, next to the door, it flickered only slightly as he watched. How annoying. As he thought this the lamp started to flicker even more violently, casting the room into a bad horror movie contrast.

It stopped as he looked at the bathroom door, only swaying ajar slightly, back and forth slowly. As it moved it creaked quietly but slowly. Back and forth, back and forth, Dib focused on it. After a few moments it swayed backwards a bit more, revealing a darkened washroom with one leaky sink. The faucet dripped once. Again. And again. A rhythmic pace that seemed to pick up speed as he watched and listened. A very leaky sink.

The rest of the room was filthy and falling apart. There was a small chair right next to his bed. Basic and metal, without any padding that would make it comfortable to sit in. The boxy ceiling offered no entertainment and the wall 's beneath it were bare and the paint was pealing. Dib looked at the chair, focused on it. He observed every inch possible from the current viewpoint and if it had any secrets it did not reveal them to him.

Slowly, very slowly, it began again. The noises started first, blending together to become one long, droning chorus that assaulted his ears and then white noise. Ringing like small bells as if he had just been to a death metal concert then put in a small, and deathly quiet, padded room. Not far from his current situation now that he thought about it.

The chair was the next to go. It shook for a moment, like an earthquake that only it could be affected by was passing through. As it shook, the chair rose up into the air. Floating, tilting slightly. It got a foot or so off the ground and kept going as the lamp decided to turn the hospital room into a club. Flashing back and forth quickly, allowing a period of darkness and then starting up again. The noise got louder.

As he lay there, unable to move, to feel, the room began to move and pulse. It was like the walls had turned to rubber and some force was pushing in and then pulling them out. The noise somehow flowed with it. Bending with the walls so to speak. It sped up, gaining volume and pitch. Becoming louder and louder, Dib could feel the walls bearing down upon him as the things on the other side tried desperately to get at him. A sound rose above all others. It sounded familiar but did not stop the room's onslaught.

The noise reverberated again. It sounded just as distant as before… like someone was calling from down a long empty hall. The room pulsed one last time and then fixed itself. The walls bent themselves straight, the chair slammed back into the floor, exactly where it was only a moment before the trip, the lamp stopped flickering and turned off as the bathroom sink stopped dripping and the door slammed shut.

The door to the hallway opened slowly, creaking as it moved. The outside light was thrown across the room and halfway up the opposite wall. A shadow slowly crept up through the doorway and onto the wall. The shadow had what appeared to be two horns and a nasty, curved head and back. Dib could hear it's breathing from where he was. Raspy and ragged. It seemed that if he moved, breathed, or even twitched the thing would quickly end him.

Slowly it made its way over to the chair next to his bed. There was a tapping noise before it left quickly. Dib breathed out a sigh of relief before the wall was taken up by something even more sinister. The new shadow slowly made its way into the room just as the one before it had and sat down in the chair. Dib kept his eye closed lightly, too tight and it would know he wasn't really asleep.

He turned away from it as best he could with his mostly covered body. Doing it slowly to not attract attention, he dared not think about what it would do to him if it was so inclined to. So he did the most logical thing to do when a dangerous person is next to you and you cannot move even if you wanted to; he waited for it to leave him back to the less horrible room.

* * *

Tak opened her eyes. She knew immediately where she was but not how she got there. She was still in the chair she had sat in just before passing out from lack of power. The first thing that ran through her mind was a question. It was one of those questions you ask yourself when you find yourself in a familiar situation but little idea how you got there: _am I awake… or dreaming?_

One quick look to her left and she answered the question without faltering. There next to her was Zim's still incapacitated form. One quick glance at the monitors was enough to extinguish a small spark of fear at the chance of him dying as she sat next to him. His breathing had returned to absolute normal instead of just stable. It was surprising that he was not awake yet, but coming that close to death, it was not surprising one would need that much rest.

Satisfied, she brushed the wrinkles out of her deep purple uniform, pulled her gloves tighter and adjusted a kink or two out of the black boots that remained ever present on Irken's feet. Satisfied that her uniform was in order once more she checked the monitors again. An annoying twitch she couldn't help but allow. Turning around quickly after confirming he was not going to drop dead at this particular moment the Irken hummed a marching tune that randomly popped its way into her head.

Just before she left Tak recalled her dream previous to even coming down here in a sudden rush that seemed to take her breath away. The emotions, the warmth… she wanted to feel it again. Glancing down the hall as if to make sure that Gir and Mimi were not around before she followed the urge over to Zim's bedside.

Her shaking and bandaged claw reached out to his head. It would be so simple, to stroke his head as she had before, to immerse herself into that world of comfort and certainty. It went against every fiber of her self-proclaimed being to think about doing it but… those feelings. That couldn't have just been the dream could it? So simple, so easy… and yet possibly so rewarding.

Tak stopped reaching out and allowed her claw to hover an inch over his head. It shook from more than just the pain of her injuries but from the act she, deep down, wanted so desperately to commit. She had no idea what to do and as such she remained there, frozen like a guard trying to decide between standing their post or giving in to temptation and sleeping. It was tempting. One of the few occasions it might be worth it though… Might, being one of the key words.

Sweat beaded and dripped down her face in unintentional concentration. This one simple act could decide everything, or nothing. She could turn away and eventually leave as sole conqueror of earth or any other planet, but forever wonder. Or she could give into persuasion and either be disappointed in what she could have had or never look back after realizing she had made the right decision. The lonesome champion accepted by her people or the regretless vigilante who turned her back on the empire to satisfy selfish desires?

Tak debated in her mind. She realized quickly that it was futile to battle against one's own emotions when they worked against what you needed to do. And the same thing the other way around, as duty was the highest priority for any self respecting Irken. She found herself slipping away from duty then back towards it in an evenly matched tug of war that could untimely decide the way her life played out. Unnerving for her to say the least.

But it was not to be decided at that point. As fate would have it Tak turned away without feeling tike the matter was settled.

She knew that this situation would arise once again. Where she would have to choose between herself and her duties. Hiding from this problem only delayed the inevitable, and it was inevitable. A part of her could not live knowing that Zim was so close but was spared. Another needed to know what it was like to be truly free, to have no orders, no objective, that part told her that Zim was the answer. She would have to take one and to hell with the other.

She could still feel the anger. The distain. Zim had ruined her life, destroyed everything she had worked for and did it without looking back. A frown drew it's ugly path across her face as she remembered watching him walk away from her screams of help. Away from who would become fairness' judgmental fist of revenge. The only question that plagued her was if she wanted to go back to that life, if it was truly behind her or just dead weight that needed to be snipped away.

But at this moment there was more than this decision on her mind. Zim was incapacitated and seemingly on the road to recovery so he wasn't going anywhere. There was only one remaining loose end to tie up after he was healed, or maybe even before. After all this 'loose end' caused her to go through hell to save an enemy and friend. Tak smiled at that familiar feeling, the shakes one gets before the thrill of the hunt. The satisfying knowledge that you would be successful in the end. The Dib human would have no idea what hit him. He would only know that it was not Zim.

* * *

Gaz sat still in the small metal chair next to her brother's bed. It was hard and uncomfortable but with her newly charged game slave there was no difference. She knew Dib was awake regardless of the fact his eyes were closed and his form was still. She knew that he didn't want her to distinguish the obvious. She didn't know why he didn't want to talk only that he didn't.

It had been a week since her last visit and she knew for a fact that no one else would visit her brother. Other than doctors and nurses he would be completely alone and bored out of his large head. It was a very likely possibility that this room had stolen the last shred of sanity that he had been clinging to hopelessly. Gaz tried to imagine her brother going insane but each attempt resulted in the same image of them each eating dinner normally. Odd that she couldn't think of it, but it was irrelevant.

She completed the Vampire Piggy Hunter level one hundred on her game slave. Gaz showed no typical signs of triumph no smile, no jumping with joy, not even a slight twitch of pride that seemed inescapable to human beings. The only thing she did differently was to force a large amount of strength into her left thumb and then use it to carve a notch on the side of the Game Slave Two.

If one looked closely they would see that it was the thirteenth notch lined up among the others. This was nothing special or new to her. She started again, the process repeated, and would repeat again and again indefinitely. As she played, now without even thinking as it was the first level, Gaz turned her attention to the room.

All around the room there uninteresting machines and plain and pointless tools, all were boring. As a reaction to the onset of boredom that would quickly be followed by them, she turned to read the nearest label. Not the most interesting thing to do but it managed to fend off the rest of the world.

As it happened, the first and most interesting thing to read turned out to be the small bag attached to Dib's feeding tube. She started with observations; it was medium sized, semi clear with a clear liquid slowly dripping down the tube and into her brother's blood stream. She considered to possibility of using this when she just didn't feel like leaving her room to grab something to eat. The thought of pizza immediately dismissed this thought.

Turning to the Label. Another semi uninteresting thing to read but she could feel it working; they were being kept at bay. Gaz skimmed down the label for a few paragraphs describing all the horrible side effects, fatigue, speech difficulties, confusion, dizziness, headaches and hallucinations. She smirked at the idea of her brother getting all of these at once, getting sent to the crazy house for boys once again. She took a mental note of the drug's name; Liquid Diazepam and turned back to her game.

In mid turn Gaz spotted something on the bedside table. The table had a few magazines, a lamp turned off, some empty pill bottles and a few used tissues. All other pathetic excuses for distractions aside there was a small slip of paper. Turned face down with its corner tucked under the lamp as to make sure it would not fall to the floor. She picked it up carefully.

Something was different about it. The card remained turned away from her as she brought it up to her face. It was pure white and stainless, completely free of the filth that littered everything else in the hospital room. She flipped it over so that the print became clear. Written plain as day on the very front of the slip of thicker paper was the owner's name; Allen C. Wilson, above that was the company's title; RTC Investigations. The company motto wasn't as comforting as it should have been; _we uncover the truth, no matter how deep it's buried._

Aside from the names titles and numbers there was only one thing of interest. There, in the top right hand of the card, in very faint coloring, a ghost of an image. There was a more colored in picture of the earth, typical sphere with green and blue in it, surrounding it however there were two think lines that bent around the earth and split off at the end before two pints. It was familiar in too many different ways. In fact, it almost looked like… an eye.

**Yes… Yes I did. Shocked No? Well if you are then I don't blame you, I didn't know until three paragraphs before I wrote it. I was wondering where he came from when I was watching ZIM eats Waffles and then again in Battle Dib for ideas. For those of you wondering; he is the guy with the trench coat and fedora. As for Dib. He is not going insane and he is not going to die. I hinted as to why Dib was so… delusional during his POV somewhere during his sister's visit.**

**Ah yes... Zim will awaken soon. Do you guys want him to go for revenge or Tak to go for it? How will it happen, who will be blamed? You choose. Oh and you might want to choose quickly because the people on the other computers may not be so nobal.**

**Respects to all my reviewers, less respects to those of you who read but are mindless drones and have no opinion. Even less respects to those who favorite or put on alert and don't review. You have time to read but not tell be what you think? You know who you are! I am just asking you guys to help me write this and improve along the way.**


	7. The Awakening

Zim opened his eyes slightly. The first thing he registered was a blurry combination of red, purple, and red-pink that reminded him a lot of Gir's 'world famous' squirrel stew. He sat there for a few moments and hung onto his previous observation, analyzing it, while waiting for the colors to separate and become shapes and identifiable objects.

He chuckled slightly as the comparison finally made sense. This seemingly small act sent waves of sharp, needlelike agony that ripped through his upper torso like a hogulus's razor sharp teeth. Fighting against instinct, Zim remained very still and refused to move until the pain faded to a dull throb originating from his chest. Even breathing pained him, if only slightly, no matter how short or deep he tried.

Zim reopened his eyes and blinked out a few tears as the stabs of pain had forced them closed. Above him, the colors slowly shifted until they became recognizable as objects with names. It was a ceiling. More specifically it was his ceiling. The jumble of wires, pipes and tubes that made up the higher house. How had he gotten here? Why was he in so much pain? Who had helped him?

Deciding to go with small things first, Zim tried to move his right hand's fingers… Nothing, in fact now that he thought about it there was no feeling in his entire right hand, nothing bellow the wrist, alarming but not enough to cause immediate panic. Trying with his other hand he was granted with a few twitches and eventually the satisfying pain of blood rushing back to his inert limb.

After a few moments Zim was able to feel every ounce of his body aside from the hand. A success granted he had no idea what else was going on. Turning slowly Zim focused in on where his hand had been. Connected to his wrist and lower forearm was a cast made of metal that had been welded shut, he recognized and remembered what these devices were for. It was far thicker than his old hand but was only to serve as a replacement until his new one grew back in the same size and shape as it had been. How annoying.

Zim thought hard. He remembered that someone had told him somewhere how to move your hand when it is like this. He started with simple things like commands, but oddly enough he couldn't get his stupid voice to work. That was just a hindrance however and one thing needed to be found out at a time. No one would say Zim walks away from his own goals. Then a thought stuck him.

He started slowly and with little conviction, thinking of a moving hand, twitching fingers. The images were of nothing really, and yet about plenty of things like pulling a wrench and other working tools typing at a computer or feeling a new element after making sure it couldn't kill you if you touched it. Then he felt it, a small jerk. This caused Zim to work with new determination and in no time it worked at half the capacity of his other arm. Good enough for the moment.

It was odd the way the cast-hand felt, it had no sensors to allow the user to feel as it was not forever. He could punch through a brick wall and not feel a thing other than the vibrations hitting his wrist. That too could be corrected later, for now he had to focus on speaking. Zim reached up with his left hand and felt around his mouth. There, blocking all but his breathing was a tube. Confident that he didn't need it anymore, it was pulled out.

It took only a moment of tugging to get it loose and then out. About a foot in length it must have reached to bottom of his lungs. This act incited a round of coughing that eventually escalated into vomiting a thick paste onto the floor. Zim had not been prepared for these feeling and jerked himself up to a sitting position and throwing his head over the side of the bed just in time to to not defile himself.

This act caused pain, but less than before. His PAK had quickly rectified whatever was hurting and would soon begin to repair it… whatever it was. His breathing was erratic and unpracticed for a few moments until he was just left panting which caused a constant flow of pain. Thinking of the throbbing feeling Zim quickly looked down at his cloth covered chest. Someone had removed his clothes… all of them.

Quickly pulling up the cloth, Zim looked at his crusted wounds. There were plenty of them but it appeared that there had been more. His rescuer aparently had taken painstaking time to stitch up every single cut to get results like this. The stitches weren't all evenly spaced but most weren't even required now and were dissolving quickly. In a day or two there wouldn't even be scars for evidence.

Zim lay back against the cot he woke up on. Before going any further he needed to find out what was going on. What had happened to his hand and overall body, who had saved him, and where was Tak- A quick flash of something. A warm feeling, he was close to something. Thinking hard he focused on this feeling and soon an image drifted past his consciousness. It was on Tak, she was holding him? No, carrying him. Behind her, smoke, lights despite the apparent nighttime, a fire or explosion.

Explosion. Zim remembered something else. Anger, no… fury directed at someone, some human. After some thought he was sure it could only be Dib at this point. The human must have said something to him to make him angry… very angry. Remembering grabbing Mini moose and telling it… oh… That's what happened. Zim allowed his gaze to drop for a moment as he absorbed this information.

How could he have been so stupid? Sure he had done some dumb stuff in the past but detonating any explosive, let alone mini moose right in front of himself? He could have given away his cover, destroyed everything he worked for, killed Tak- Zim's thought process stopped as he remembered his partner in this invasion. He had two to care about now, and he couldn't afford to be selfish after all the time Tak had aparently put into saving him from his own mistake.

He quickly looked around the room before his gaze landed on the medical table next to his bed. It was covered in tools and other medical instruments but at the very corner there was a small disk with one single purple dot in the center. Circling the center dot was a small ring like screen projector. Now it just had his name written neatly on it in Irken. It was undoubtedly left by Tak. He slowly reached with his left hand, for fear his right hand would crush it, and grabbed the message.

He flipped it around in his hand gently. Why would she leave a message, they live in the same house right? Slowly he turned it to allow the button to face him and let his thumb brush it. A beep resonated, letting him know that his print registered and the message would play soon. The projectors allowed his name to fade before lighting up and shooting up a screen of light.

The background was surrounded by black, typical secretive Tak. Zim still could not grasp why she had left the message instead of just telling him in person. It seemed impolite to not want to see him, but then again he could be wrong. The whole 'socially acceptable' world seemed to be entirely different from what he thought it was and it left him in the dark as to what was right and wrong.

After a few moments Tak appeared. She was without her disguise and held what seemed to be a look of sadness in her eyes. She blinked and held her hands behind her back; her eyes became that familiar hardness that reminded him of the words 'Just business.' Something was different this time though; he couldn't put his finger on it just yet.

"Zim. Before I go any farther I…" Tak blinked a few times and glanced away from the screen for a few moments. Gir must be disrupting her or something. Tak cleared her throat and continued.

"I need to say a few things. Your training is over; it has been for a while. You were at invader capacity quite a while ago. However you were becoming too dependent on my guidance and protection." Zim blinked and looked back at the screen. Tak's gaze faltered again. He noticed her bandaged hands when she wiped her forehead with one arm.

"As you probably have guessed, I left. I'm not sure when you will wake up but when you do I will be gone. I took my Sir unit and my equipment back to my new base. I have some things to take care of concerning Dib." Zim was watching with such intensity that he did not notice his jaw drop open.

"Zim… " Tak practically whispered his name. Her eyes got a softer look in them as she looked back at the screen. She looked as if she were in great pain, was she wounded by the explosion worse than he had been? Unlikely, not only had she carried him back but her body language read that she was thinking something that was bothering her. She closed her eyes and glared at the camera with forced hatred.

"Don't follow me." The message ended. Zim felt something. A deep pressure in his squeedly spooch that made him feel like vomiting up more of the tasteless paste he had been fed the entire time he was unconscious. His eyes hurt too, his arms went week, legs even weaker and an annoying migraine added to the symphony of pain that took place all over him.

An hour later Zim reawakened with anger. It boiled within him with a lust for revenge at the one who had caused this. The Dib had set in motion events that caused not only his injuries but also caused Tak to leave him or get hurt herself. The games ended here... the Dib would pay for making a nuisance of himself.

* * *

The hospital was practically empty. This was unnaturally rare as it seemed the more technology people got; the stupider they acted with it. But at this particular moment, all the injured people were already here or just in the process of hurting themselves.

The check in and out office of pain only held one person in it. A young woman receptionist flipping through an old magazine of last month's fashion while propping her head up with one arm. For what felt like hours the only noise came from a ticking clock five minutes late and the flipping of dusty old pages. Then a new noise broke the monotony; an elevator bell letting everyone in the premise know someone was coming down. If they were someone interesting was yet to be seen.

The doors slid open as the receptionist turned to the new inhabitant of her own personal hell. A boy in a wheelchair that was being pushed by an extremely hansom doctor out to leave through the front door. She waved at the man with a happy smile before glaring at the boy's abnormally large head as they passed. It almost didn't seem real it was so big.

Dib could feel her glare and chose to ignore it. Years of being made fun of gives you a choice in what to do about it. The doctor opened the front door and wheeled him out. Midnight and the streets were still clogged. This was not a surprise, on some of the better days people would get to work, check in then leave immediately to 'beat the traffic' only to get home twelve hours later to have a cup of coffee then leave for work right after. Thus the cycle continues…

The doctor practically dumped his patient on the curb and left with an over-happy smile on his face. Dib landed on his feet and wobbled for only a moment. Despite all the medical advancements in human history a month after getting hurt and Dib's joints still hurt. Still, it would be great to go home after so long. Too bad he would have to walk.

Bitter feelings were invoked when he remembered that he was alone. No Gaz, she had stopped visiting when some new game came out. No dad, he had sent a card though, too bad someone stole it because it had been signed by Dr. Membrane. No friends, but that was self explanatory, or enemies for that matter, Zim dead and Tak most likely emotionally crippled he was now completely alone.

Deciding to start sooner rather than later Dib began to take his first shaky steps back out into the world. He took in deep breaths of air to calm himself and to keep a strong grip on reality. The drugs hadn't entirely cleared from his system and he could revert back to the freakish hallucinations if he wasn't careful. Despite finally leaving the hospital, getting to go home and getting everything to return to a degree of the way it was, the boy felt somewhat depressed.

Nothing would ever be the same anymore. Zim was dead and would stay dead despite all of his advanced technology and general luck. Dib wouldn't even get the satisfaction of proving he was an Alien to anyone. Tak had taken his body, most likely packed up his base and left for a new city or different planet even. No it was all over, the plots, the danger, all of it gone and most likely never to return, all for one stupid insult. But he had learned to accept that.

Dib had spent a large portion of the past month thinking about his past actions. Sure he had caused the death of another life form and possibly mentally injured the other but it was justified in the name of science. This was what he had practically tattooed into his mind. Despite a month of nonstop denial built up before it, a small thought of doubt wormed its way through. It told him that he had done it for childish revenge instead of noble science. Dib quickly forced this thought from his head. It jeopardized everything he needed to be at the moment.

Dib walked down the practically empty walkways, no one was out now. The sidewalk was illuminated by streetlamps spaced too far apart to be helpful but it saved money for the city owners. They were separated thirty feet from the two next to them leaving a good twenty feet of pitch darkness to be ambushed in. Not a second after he thought this did a large dark shape dart into a nearby alleyway.

Dib continued taking deep breaths to calm himself. They were just hallucinations, not real demons or people waiting to take money he didn't have. Dib shuddered one last time and continued walking. He had just reached the next ring of light when he heard something that caused him to stop immediately in his tracks; footsteps. Turning slowly the boy investigated to find nothing.

Hmm. Odd, but not completely unexplainable, once again it could be the drugs. Dib was about to return to his walk when he came face to face with a tall man in an overcoat, causing him to literally jumb back. He stood just on the edge of the light, just enough to illuminate some of his clothes but not his face. Dib shifted nervously, he could not simply walk around the man, and he obviously wanted something.

They stood there in oppressive silence for some time. The man's eyes never left Dib and he in turn gave back the same vigilance of the man's movements. The world seemed to slow and stop for at least one person in the stare down. Dib shifted uncomfortably under the man's unblinking, unfaltering gaze that ripped into him and his life like a hot knife through melted butter.

"Are you Dib Membrane?" The man broke the silence first, his voice sounded worn down and raspy as if he were in great need of water and ready to kill in cold blood to get it. Unable to answer Dib simply nodded shakily. Considering his options he could not run in his current condition and a call for help would go unnoticed at this time of night.

"The name's Will or Wilson. Whichever you prefer. I've been looking forward to meeting you." The last sentence was dragged out for a moment, as if he was planning to continue but decided against it. Dib shivered involuntarily as he could feel the hidden sting of the man's words, it was plain as day that if he didn't cooperate things would get messy.

"I want to know a few things Dib. And you're going to answer every one of my questions, aren't you?" Another nod and the man was satisfied that there would be little to no resistance to his investigation.

"Where were you when the school exploded?" Creepy how it was formed as a question but came out as an order. Dib tried to answer but his throat was dry and his lips felt numb, it took a few tries.

"T-the Playground." He answered shakily and with little certainty but the man could have been smiling at what he said. This Wilson was defiantly not here to play games with him. This was business, like in the movies… only difference was if you get shot now, you most likely won't live to get revenge. Dib knew all too well that there would be no heroic rescues from the bad guy in this scene if it came to that.

"I want to know who caused that explosion Dib. Now before you answer I want you to think hard about what could happen here if you choose the wrong words." As if to emphasize his point the man reached behind his back and pulled a gun from the shadows. It was a shiny black revolver that gleamed like a deadly poison in the artificial light. Dib's back went rigid and what little color he had drained from his face.

This guy knew something. He knew something that other humans overlook all the time. It was almost funny, he would have given anything to have someone ask him a question like that anytime in the past year before last month, but he didn't plan to do it at gunpoint. The words escaped him, Dib found himself at a complete loss for words to start explaining as he looked into the black nothingness that occupied the barrel of this man's gun.

"You see Dib I have a feeling you want to tell me, but something is holding you back. Is that it? Is something telling you that they will hurt you or someone you love if you tell anyone?" These words were not comforting but they did invoke a new thought into his head. What would Tak do if she found out he had helped this man. She wouldn't shoot him that was for sure… The alien's past words reverberated around in his head for a moment 'There are far worse things than death Dib, Far worse.' Then it hit him. This guy had said something, not someone… he was suspicious.

"I'll tell you what. I'll give you a few days to think about it before I-" Dib cut him off in mid threat.

"It was an Alien. His name is Zim, he lives in a green house with a purple roof and is planning on destroying us all. I've been watching him for a while but could never get any proof." It was like a floodgate had been opened. The words and explanations that had been pent up for the better part of two years spilled forth and when it was all over than man had put away his gun and been taking notes. Little did either know, the whole thing had taken an hour's time.

"Thank you Dib. We will be in touch." The man held a card out to him. He took it carefully and looked at it for a moment. One look up and he was gone. Hallucinations… he needed to clear his head. Dib slipped the card into his black overcoat pocket.

And what if it was real? What did it matter anymore? Their house was probably gone by now, all evidence buried under a mountain of human ignorance. No, things wouldn't change too much. Tak and Zim were gone forever, and life would return to the way it had been before they had ever arrived. Dib repeated his previous vow and continued, completely unaware of the eight legged being following him on the nearby wall. Watching him the entire way back to his house.

**Yes friends I have been working. The disgusting rain has taken its toll on what I can do so I decided that another chapter is due. I tried to thicken the plot with Wilson now having all the evidence he needs. What will he do with it? How will Tak respond and what horrible plans does Zim have in store for Dib? You choose…**

**I'm not so certain about this chapter because I skipped a month of life and Tak left Zim. However, I feel that Dib and Zim have spent enough time griping about their pain and injuries and need to get back out there and start the bloodshed. If I'm rushing let me know what I missed. Oh and Tak's allegiance has not shifted, she still cares\hates Zim and will make the ultimate decision soon. Reviews not only make me write faster they give me ideas so please contribute.**


	8. The Hunt Begins

Zim looked down at his newly metal-clad hand. His computer estimated a week before it could be taken off but until then it would do best to make it more convenient. Feeling would be needed if he was to perform any of the required steps of his plan. Zim had worked for no more than an hour and finally it was ready and tested to satisfaction.

He extended his right most PAK legs and allowed them to insert themselves into two small holes in the base of his cast. It took only a moment for the points to jab out of the tips of the 'fingers.' Each prong bending to mimic his more accurate claw. The two jointed appendages then retracted into his PAK to the point of resting along his upper forearm and down his back. Making for the perfect artificial limb… At least for now.

It was Ironic now that he thought about it: How the week would pass and the day before he could take off the accused crutch that now occupied his wrist, on that day he would learn to accept it. Funny that of all things, through the haze of impending bloodlust for an annoyance out there breathing, comedy was the thing that punctured through this. Ironic…? We know better.

Zim dropped down to his still unsteady feet. A month is a long time of not doing anything and his physical performance was obviously affected. Just to get out of the bed he had been resting in he had needed the aid of the PAK's limbs. However, first steps were best taken sooner to be forgotten later. Zim started forward with his usual confidence at the new thought of these next few months passing quickly, for now he would need a drive to speed things along.

Tak had gotten a head start of who knows how long and he would need to beat her to the punch line that was Dib. The time of choosing had come. If he could beat her now he was the superior Invader. Zim ignored the pang of something in the pit of his very being. Now would not be the time appropriate time to be compassionate for an enemy about to be met in a possibly theoretical battlefield.

Tak had always taught him that an enemy will take advantage of anything they could to undermine progress. She would undoubtedly not be above using emotions against him in the final race for the planet or the race for revenge. He could not let that happen. She had taught him everything she knew so they were equally matched in at least that. Zim's walking had escalated into a weird combination of angry stomping and marching as he made his way to the nearby elevator.

The ride up was quick but the entire thing went agonizingly slow to the Invader onboard. Time seemed to be going slower now… for whatever reason it suited his purposes as Tak had most likely captured or at least alerted the human to the fact he is being hunted. Time was of the essence and seemed to be taking longer for that exact reason. The trashcan lid opened just in time for him to get out.

Zim looked around the abnormally clean kitchen. His antenna's raised in an attempt to sense some flaw in the room's uncanny cleanliness. One thing was a law in this house and it was that the kitchen was always and under no uncertain circumstances a free for all warzone. This could mean one of two things but each was irrelevant in the schematics of his plan.

Zim made his way to another section of his home, more specifically the living room, and stepped in front of the nearby and totally inconspicuous drawer table thing. The wooden decoy lifted up to the ceiling as the tiles pulled apart to reveal another hidden passageway. Zim descended once more and walked down the hallways of a different section of the base.

The current corridor he resided in was lined with doors that were all marked according to what they contained. There were robots of all kinds, disguises and general parts that could be used to build practically anything but he was currently looking for something very specific. Opening a small door Zim peeked inside of a hangar that held hundreds of ship replacement parts. The lights were turned off and another door was chosen.

This process continued until Zim turned on a dim room's bright lights. The objects that were illuminated by such an act were by far more deadly than anything else in his base. Smiling in triumph the small Irken set to work on creating his new toy.

* * *

Detective Wilson walked quickly along the festering underbelly of this rotting city. It seemed that every time he was down here there was just more filth, more corruption and even more people. Ten years ago there were only corners like these in cities as large as this, now this is the backstage of everyone's dreams. It was disgusting, pathetic but invoked a certain level of sadness at the thought of what they wanted and could have had at one point.

As he walked, the Detective listened to the groans of pain from the sick, homeless and general castaways from society. They all had either started with something, gotten far and then failed or were born into this horrible situation. How heartrending… but sadly irrelevant to the larger scheme of things. The situation would improve as soon as houses and workplaces were not being destroyed by random catastrophes… which these two anomalies are hopefully linked to.

Wilson glared at two thugs who refused to look at him like someone to steal from. That was the ultimate insult, their reaction only reminded him how far not only the city had fallen, but how far he had dropped as well. Dressing as if he were one of them was not an improvement.

The detective reminded himself of his previous threat to the child back on the side walk. He repeated to himself that he had done that to people before… yeah… an unheard or ignored part of Willson's mind screamed at him that they were suspected criminals, not children.

But be it training, determination or trying not to focus on his quickly deteriorating morality the 'good' Detective noticed something. It was a very unfamiliar feeling that seemed to make his back warm and his general attitude nervous for not more than a second. There was something or someone watching him. This was new and defiantly not welcome during a possible conspiracy or terrorist attack. Hit men would not be out of the question.

Perhaps the child had a cell phone and called the police? Unlikely, he had his radio on him and would have gotten something. Perhaps the thugs were going to attempt to mug him anyway? Once again no, nonaggressive stance and posture gave it all away. Something was watching him though. Only difference was he now had no idea what or who it was. Wilson kept walking like normal as he calmly let his hand drop to the revolver at his side and pull the hammer back.

He took few more steps and then whipped backwards so fast his back cracked in several places. To any interested and not alarmed bystander the gun would almost seem to jump into his hand. Aiming at large piles of trash and shadowy corners. Calling out for someone to surrender did seem a bit illogical at the moment as there were about thirty or forty thousand desperate dregs that he would be alerting.

Slowly he backtracked and looked around all corners while never letting the gun out of his iron grip. Annoying how he found nothing despite the fact that something was watching him. Wilson stood in the very center of the filthy intersection of deserted alleys. He thought for a moment about if he were to ambush someone this would be the place to do it. Ironic that now he was being watched instead of watching for a change.

Deciding that whoever was following him would have one hell of a time he set off into the darkest holes of the city to lose a rather clever tail. Investigation after investigation had lead him here and as such he knew the maze very well. Already as he began his decent into humanity's self created hell he planned out how to make it to the first anomaly's home.

Now that he thought of it, the head of the delicious weenie corporation did not ever say anything about having a daughter… hell the man spent so much time at work it was a wonder he had time to date let alone hold onto a girl long enough for children. The a daughter just shows up like that at age twelve? No build up, any birth certificate. Something wasn't right.

This Zim was more suspicious but from what the child had said, this Tak was much craftier about being an 'Alien.' Wilson scoffed at the idea. Aliens may exist but as Membrane, the boy's own father no less, had said many times that the aliens cannot get to us now. When they can, we will be ready though. Twenty trips to the moon and humanity was still stuck at home base. Such a waste.

No. Most likely these two had somehow threatened the child to the point of his mind creating a delusional fantasy that reasoned away what they could be. The child had been admitted to the crazy house for boys at least once so it would not be unfathomable to think he was insane. Also with the hallucinations his drugs may give him? No. He was delusional.

Wilson looked over his shoulder one last time and could have sworn he saw a black cat dash past him in a blur of bluish black but he dismissed the thought. Getting jumpy while being followed was natural. He turned his mind to loosing the follower that was undoubtedly starting to get dizzy from all the turns and twists. Natural human ignorance told him they were defiantly not watching him from the black cat's unnaturally red eyes.

* * *

Tak sat in the semi-darkness, back hunched any eyes drooping in total boredom, her head rested precariously on her halfheartedly clenched fist. She was currently looking at the reports of the current plan's possible outcomes and tweaking the plan every hour or so. Other than that she simply monitored the new target as he made his way in a very peculiar direction.

The Dib had been 'chatting' with this other human for a few moments. He had been walking as if it were any other walk home from a hospital rest when the other pulled a gun on him. Now the reports on this planet say that if that happens then the human at the point of the gun hands over what is called "cash" and then gets shot so they cannot tell the authorities of the incident. This apparently was not the typical scenario however.

As soon as they started to talk Tak ordered Mimi, who she had sent to trail the human, to get in close to the two to get a good reading of the conversation. The information gathered was far more of a threat than some human stealing her kill. Dib had apparently given away everything he knew to this human.

This affected the current mission on many different levels. The main edge she and Zim had held over the Dib was that no one believed him, now it seems that someone who was not deemed insane by the general public believed him and now has information and possibly proof. Something was off, no one ever cared about the Dib's obsession with aliens and now someone was approaching him about it? This was not the norm.

Also, Tak was in a tight spot for a moment as she thought of the decision. Two humans, the choice between revenge and the integrity of the mission. She had swallowed her pride and gone after the detective. She had ordered mimi to dispach a drone to follow him just in case though. The Dib was going home and did not show any signs of nervousness as he walked until the man interrupted him with the treat of death. No she knew where the human was going. But this man… she admitted that there was nothing on file.

And that brought upon the current situation. Mimi was now following this man who was going in a very odd bee-line through back-alleys and other roads where he would go unnoticed by most. Eerily he was on his way to the more upper class part of the suburbs. Almost like he was coming to… nah. The Dib hadn't told him that much she was sure. And if he did… one man, a human, against her? The outcome was clear; her plans on the other hand were not.

It seemed that everything was working against her in these situations. Normally she would want it that way after the weenie stand incident to make sure idiots like Zim wouldn't be able to interfere. Now? Things seemed impossible. Zim's personality was too random to be tested. The computers couldn't process the downloadable version and even crashed the base for a week. Unacceptable… she should have known he would have found a way to impede plans without even knowing they existed.

Tak reopened her eyes. Apparently she had closed them at some point doing her thought process. Annoying. Opening them slowly she gazed back at the monitors. Each displayed boring information and annoyingly repetitive reports. It all was constantly changing in a tiring rhythm that just seemed to lull one's eyes closed and pull them closer to sleep. No one would mind right? Just a few minuets wouldn't kill anyone… The Irken's head fell forward and slammed into the computer's dashboard.

In truth this process had repeated ever since she left Zim's base. Tak refused to believe any of her health reports and continued to stay awake for weeks and collapse for an entire day. Counterproductive and self destructive bunt mostly ignored. She would never admit it, but the thrill of the hunt hadn't been distracting enough to get her mind off of the uncertain grounds of Zim.

Tak was disgusted but at the same time comforted about her dreams she had. Many contained hunting down and killing him for invoking these primal feelings in her. It impeded her mission. Others told her that these feelings were a good thing and that they were but a weak prolog to what she could have in the event of joining Zim in his quest against the humans. She remained neutral to both only swaying slightly every now and again.

At this very moment she was having one of those dreams of stomping Zim's face in as he crawled from his burning base and crumpled machinery. The detail was extravagant, He was weeping as he dragged two broken legs and his snapped off PAK appendages that were leaking blood and oil. Zim stopped about a foot in front of her and looked up with a pitiful broken face. Tak watched from her own eyes as her body pulled out the handheld doom cannon she always carried. She aimed, wished she could stop this annoying scene and fired. The dream ended.

As always she shot up from the dashboard of the large computer with a gasp. It seemed that every time she dreamed that she killed him, she didn't want to and every time she joined him, she didn't want that either… Damn she needed a mood ring. Unwilling to return to more fluxing nightmares she returned to work.

Tak shook these thoughts from her mind and looked back up at the monitors. All reports continued to scroll down and the plan was still being checked so in due time her eyes were drawn to Mimi's vision. They were now in a neighborhood. It seemed a bit familiar. A chill ran down the Irken's spine despite the lingering slowness from sleep.

The over coated man stopped outside a large wall with a chain link fence that acted as a gate. He reached for the buzzer as Tak tried desperately to remember why this home seemed so familiar. A loud ring made her jump out of the large seat and activate all of her servants. It had all clicked with the noise and now he was here to see her.

**Hello reviewers. Yes Saturday is the start of the weekend in my opinion. Sorry I didn't post earlier but I have been a bit depressed of late. Nothing to worry about I just misplaced my pills. In the mean time I tried to distract myself with writing. I sincerely hope the details weren't too depressing for anyone but that's how I tend to write when I'm not feeling well.**

**Now this chapter could go either way because, as I mentioned before, I have not been feeling well. If you don't like it let me know and I will revise and rewrite. Oh and please stop sending me about the PAK\PAC and Irken\Irkan. I know its spelled Irken and PAK and I have no idea where I'm spelling it wrong. I scanned every chapter like five times and got nothing. Other than that let me know.**


	9. BreakIns and Revelations

Wilson waited outside of the large mansion he had found in a report. A rather large home for just a little girl with her dad, who was at work eighteen hours of the day and sleeping the other six. It was surprisingly well defended but not enough to be suspected of anything. But none the less it was as guarded as any military base. The entire perimeter was surrounded by a stone wall with electric barbed wire along the top, complete with security cameras. The place wasn't exactly welcoming visitors.

Wilson approached carefully and reached for the buzzer a second time, perhapse they didnt get the first one? Just before he hit the button a gust of wind knocked him off his balance for a moment. Odd, it hadn't been windy before. The sudden onrush of wind died down as quickly as it had come and left the detective somewhat confused. Simply excusing it as odd weather he tapped the buzzer quickly to avoid other intrusions. The noise resounded somewhere else out of his range of comprehension.

Wilson took a few steps back and waited outside the stone wall at a large imposing gate. Dogs bayed at his presence from the other side. Looking along the left side of the wall above the buzzer, screen and speaker were several warnings. Each written in bold lettering WARNING and then went on to describe how all intruders have a right to be shot and or pressed with immediate charges. A bit over the top but not enough to point to the heir being an 'alien.' The speaker beeped and a face popped up on the screen.

A man in obvious security attire appeared on the screen. He appeared to be very agitated at such a late night intrusion to his regular post. The guard rubbed his eyes wearily and looked at the detective with a mixture of shock and anger. Wilson noticed the look he tossed off screen at were most likely other guards, they were anticipating trouble. He waited patiently for the man to turn back to him.

"Please present you ID, warrant or invitation." The man droned tiredly after a moment. Wilson smiled and reached for his badge and ID. His hand unzipped one of the overcoat's inner pockets and reached inside. His fingers only hit fabric. Wilson's smile twitched as he tried to reach deeper, he never put them anywhere else. Glancing up he noticed the guard growing increasingly impatient and angry at what appeared to be an unwarranted intrusion.

A few minutes later and the Detective had emptied out his entire coat and pants pockets only to come up with nothing. Complete shock took residence in his mind. They could not have gotten out of his pockets on their own and wandered off. No one could have stolen them because one, his wallet was still in it's place and two, he was trained to know if someone was reaching into his own pockets. Looking back up at the guard with embarrassment reddening his face Wilson was about to say something when the man cut him off.

"Sir. This is private property. No one, no matter how important, gets in without an invitation, ID or a signed warrant." Wilson felt the anger boiling up within him, someone had stolen his identification and he had a hunch that it was to stop him from getting in. The guard frowned at him, as if waiting for the possible solicitor to interrupt, before continuing.

"Please leave now. We take mongrels loitering on our doorstep very seriously." An insult? The detective was close to tearing the man a new one when the link was terminated. Mouth agape and overflowing with rebellious rage, Wilson's gaze was drawn to the fence. He noticed the advanced security first. Motion-sensor cameras spaced about twenty feet apart along the lower wall, electric barbed wire all ten feet up in the air. Tough but not unbeatable.

Slowly he turned around and faded into the shadows of the city. Once unseen the detective turned to face the fortress. It wouldn't be impossible… hard but not undoable. Wilson shook his head, what was he thinking? Breaking in? Once he got over the fence then what? Sure he would pull a gun on a child only to threaten him, stalk a little girl to get some answers, but breaking in and possibly doing all three together? How could he even consider it?

Wilson closed his eyes and leaned up against a nearby wall. He looked down at some nearby wooden beams and iron poles. He reached down and snagged up a beam, weighing it in his hands. A fence can be jumped… No, he wouldn't break in anywhere… would he? The man debated in his head what to do now. This could be the highlight of his career or the pitfall that ended it.

Funny how he was crossing into moral distress at the same time as crossing into forbidden territory. Sure this could be for the greater good but breaking into a house, not to mention a rich, connected and very well supplied family's house? He knew beyond all doubt that this would be a one way trip. There would be no way out but through the front gate as far as he could tell now. A bitter chuckle escaped his throat as he thought of the irony.

Wilson turned to the wall once more and took a deep breath to prepare himself. He closed his eyes and brought a sense of closure into everything in his mind. This could be the last time. If he did survive then he was still breaking a law and could be thrown in prison without trial as the sign stated. Opening his eyes with a new determination, the Detective started forward not as a cop, but as a soon-to-be criminal.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Tak's base's dimly lit control room, a certain Irken was smiling to herself. Indeed it had been a quick decision that could have ruined everything but in the end it had paid off. Mimi scampered into the room, still in disguise, and hopped up to her lap. Tak snagged the ID and badge from her servant's mouth and smirked as she looked back at the man lingering on her front gate. He would have no way to get in now.

Tak examined the ID and Badge. Very official, Detective Wilson… she entertained a brief thought that this man was like Sherlock holms' assistant Watson, but it refused to entertained her for the duration of the night. Thinking rather slowly, she slipped the ID and Badge into one of the scanners and had each be taken on record for possible uses.

Then the monotonously grating boredom settled back in. She felt her eyes sliding closed again as she watched him leave with his 'tail between his legs'. This detective would have to be dealt with later, but not while she was planning against the Dib worm. Tak got out of her chair and stretched. Her back cracked in twelve different places and sent tingling warning sensations up her spine.

Sitting back down she glared at the taunting screens. So needless. Give them power and they run forever… Tak's head slammed into the computer keyboard as she fell into a deep and unforgiving sleep. The base automatically sent down three cables to recharge her PAK as she would not be getting up this time. In fact, the Alien was so tired that her mind ignored the blinking, intruder light that went off just a moment after she fell asleep.

* * *

A guard stood outside his post at the front door of the Delicious Mansion. His eyes darted from left to right… left to right and back again. The chief had ordered them to be at their highest awareness for the night. Someone wanted in, someone who didn't have an invitation. As such it was their duty to protect the master. The guard twitched for a moment and reached up to rub the scar along his forehead. A twitch in his mind and he was back on duty scanning the perimeter.

Outside the mansion, but still within the walls, the master had wanted a garden. She had taken flowers and bushes from all over the world and planted them here to make a natural rainforest like scenery. It gave the appearance of a tamed wild forest. Paradoxical? Yes it was a bit odd how it looked natural yet artificial at the same time. The guard felt a buzz in his mind before turning back to the wall and scanning it again.

Something dark darted over the wall. The guard stiffened and allowed his visor to drop to eye level. Nothing… The garden was too thick to get a clear signature. The shape had been too big to be anything less than a person so that means they would have some fun tonight. The guard turned to his partner standing on the other side of the door and nodded before drawing his gun. He had seen it too.

The guard motioned to the trees and his partner went out into the tangled growth. This would just be routine search and apprehend for the courts. The intruder would have no chance in the courts with the signs they have all over the walls. The man still standing at the door reached for his radio and tapped the link. It took only a moment for command post to respond with a beep that let him know they got his message.

"Command this is Guard 2765 posted outside the front door, I'd like report a possible intrusion and call for a search." Taking his finger of the transmit button, Guard 2765 put in one ear bud with a mouthpiece attachment. There was static for only a moment before the commander responded.

"Guard 2765, we have units heading to your position now. What did you see?" There was the sound the flipping of papers as the commander no doubt had someone filling out the tremendous amount of paperwork involved with someone breaking in. On the bright side, no one would be able to stand up to that much evidence if the forms were all filled out.

"We saw a shape, over the north wall, it was too big to be any animal-" The guard was interrupted by gunshots followed by a scream of pain.

"We have gunfire sir, moving in to assist! Sent the squad to search the northern section of the garden." Not waiting for the go ahead from command he set off into the mess that was a garden. Hopefully the intruder hadn't been a mach for his partner. If he was then it was no great loss, they hadn't been friends per say- another whirring sound and shakes in his mind and Guard 2765 was completely focused on his mission. The master must be protected at all costs.

He continued through the tangled mess of trees and bushes carefully, making not a single sound and able to hear everything. There was running water from the artificial river they had build some time ago and over thirty thousand different bird calls mixing together with the wind rustling the leaves. All of the sudden everything went quiet.

Immediately the guard stopped moving and controlled his breath. Any normal human would have been nervous but something prevented that feeling in him. He slowly drew his gun and made sure it was loaded and locked into place. It was then that he sensed it, someone was behind him.

Thinking quickly the guard whipped around and almost shot the figure but a strong hand gripped his wrist and a heavy boot kicked him in the chest. The guard was flung away about a yard and dropped the gun when he landed. It slid off into the darkness and out of his reach. The guard got up quickly and looked around only to see trees and vines. He was gone.

Slowly the guard reached to his side and gripped his baton. He extended it and turned the shock capacity on high. The baton practically cackled with electricity as he held it in defensive position crossing his chest. A rustle in the bushes and he whipped around to meat nothing more than a distraction. The intruder kicked him in the small of his back and backed away. He needed only to watch as guard 2765 got stunned by his own shock baton.

* * *

Wilson cracked his neck and adjusted his gloves before snagging the guards pistol. Something was different about it… it glowed purple in certain areas and seemed to vibrate with energy. The first man had one too, though he hadn't gotten a chance to fire it. The weapons perplexed him but the corporation must have simply bought undeveloped weapons for security purposes? Odd but not unexplainable.

The detective carefully put the gun in his pocket and continued to the house. The front door would be locked and guarded but the windows were still made of glass. He quickly hopped up into a nearby tree and scaled it to the window on the second floor. He reached into a pocket and produced a thin wire that he bent with a lot of effort and then stabbed under the plastic casing. After some rooting around he felt satisfied to hear a small click.

Wilson paused for a moment. He could still go back; they had no incriminating evidence that it was him. He could go back to his job, house apartment and wife- The detective opened the window carefully making sure his overcoat did not snag on anything and hopped in before closing it behind himself.

Inside there were no guards… odd and somewhat creepy. Why would there not be any guards inside of the mansion? This was something he hadn't encountered before in his long career of a police officer and then a detective. It unnerved him how silent the house was. Instinctively, the detective pulled his pistol from its sheath and pulled back the hammer until a click reassured him.

Wilson crept along the hallway in a crouching\slinking manner that made him look like a black stain that was sliding across the floor and needed to be stopped before it decided to settle and leave a mark. He made sure not to touch, breath, or move on anything lest he leave any type of mark. Something about the place made him feel like he shouldn't be here. Like he were intruding upon someone's grave or some sort of 'holy' grounds.

Unknowingly the detective continued along over several invisible sensors that alerted the base to his presence. Already the formerly solid ceiling was shifting to allow several wires to extend silently to the ground. Wilson went on, unknowing of the danger he was in, and in no time he had reached the stairway. Descending quickly he found a solid metal door that was locked by keypad.

The detective smiled once he saw this. Computers are the worst form of security these days, pull a few wires and nine times out of ten it would open. Quickly he approached the door and unscrewed the pad from the wall and attached several of the wires to his PDA and then back to the pad. In a moment the door slid open. He took his time to screw the pad back into the wall with a small bug in case he needed to open it again. Finally he looked into the way he had just opened. What lay inside, blew his mind.

The first thing he noticed was the machinery, it was years beyond human comprehension and designing. Everything was smooth and colored a uniform blue and purple that gleamed in the darkness. Next he noticed the floating service drones that went on building the base as it was still new. Humans could never have built things like that. Each was smaller than a thumbnail but connected together to work faster. The lights were produced seemingly from thin air and the atmosphere was very cold, unnaturally so.

And the final detail that completely blew his mind was the thing sitting at the chair in front of the monitors. It had green skin and antennas for one, a pipe\ wire connected to the back of it's head to the front. The only relief was that it seemed to be dormant for the moment. Wilson backed up in shock before feeling something tugging at his leg. Looking down he saw what appeared to be wires, attaching to his clothes and wrapping around his legs.

In one jerk the cables that had been attaching themselves to his overcoat pulled him to a nearby vent before he could react. Clawing desperately at the smooth floor he struggled against the machinery. Finally he grabbed the edge of that they were dragging him to; a dark pipe. The wires swarmed around him and pulled him deeper. His hands slipped; in complete shock and terror the Detective tried to scream but couldn't in time before being pulled into the depths bellow.

**I have to say this was pretty fun to write. This Wilson character was getting on my nerves so I had him go after Tak. Do you guys think she will experiment on him? Torture him or what? Let me know so I can keep things interesting.**

**The next chapter will have Dib in it… and Zim. The final battle is almost upon us friends and I need your help to find out how it will play out for out 'heroes' and 'villains'. Who will win, who will lose? Who will tell me how to write freaking Gir? Common someone has to know!**


	10. Preparation of Doom

Zim looked through his goggles at the small rod-like device he was working on. It was critical to everything he was working against but it was indeed one of the smallest pieces of equipment he had in the entire base. Normally, or at least what used to be normal for him, the object's smallness would have deterred him from using it. On this occasion however, not only was there Tak's training to account for but he felt the need to set all biases and conditions aside in view of the greater goal.

Zim pulled off the goggles and tossed them aside, they clattered into a dark corner of the workshop. Next he pulled off the over gloves, they were flung into a nearby incinerator as the power fluids had contaminated them. The flames deep bellow his base flared up at the new compound to be burned. The particles would be separated and then recreated in newly processed gloves within the hour.

The alien lifted up the rod in his hands, carefully assessing the tool as if everything depended on it. In truth, everything did depend on it. Without this antenna he would not be able to transmit anything, let alone a signal.

As quickly as he had picked it up, the device was set back down and plugged back in. He took careful precautions to attach each wire, every cable, and transmitter correctly to make sure that every watt of power went in correctly. This could short the base… again. An acceptable loss but not a convenient one. The core could take the strain on its system... no, the core would take the strain if he wanted it to. What kind of invader would he be if he couldn't make his own base bend to his will? He felt an annoying twitch to his left.

Zim scowled and looked back to his monitors. Each displayed something different but they were all relevant. On the left side there was the Dib worm in his house. Seeing as Dr. Membrane was something of a 'scientist' he felt the need to have the greatest security he could get his hands on in his house. This was counterproductive in this situation because such primitive block networking was nothing compared to the combined force of his newly docile base. It became painfully obvious that Tak had been taking her sweet time in striking at the human so he had that to put his mind at 'ease.'

Thinking back to his original hack he remembered the base's lack of discontent and general complaining. Recently, Zim had been noticing that his base had been somewhat submissive to his commands. This was different but not exactly unwelcome as there would be little room for such failures in this mission. However, this denied him the chance to talk to someone about his plans. Odd how he felt the need to explain his actions to someone or something… No he didn't need anyone. If he was to be a real invader, he would need no one.

Looking back at the screens Zim observed the right side of his monitors. These screens displayed a very different image from the left ones. Each was a recording of a very specific time of Tak's base. He had been able to get a total of five minutes before her security system detected a hack. That was 4 minutes fifty five seconds and 9 milliseconds more than what even he would have allowed without a direct link into the system. Something was off with this and he was having his computer scan for whatever it was.

The five minuets were of her recharging at the computer station, not exactly as informative as Zim had expected from Tak. He hadn't been able to get a direct link to her Pak to find out her plans in time. Well he could have, but it just didn't seem right to compromise any enemy that way, especially a respected Irken and former teacher. What surprised him more than anything was the lack of retaliation. She should know that he tried to hack her base by now and done something about it.

Despite how interesting it was, this was sadly irrelevant to the simulations and general plans. Well… mostly irrelevant. This did complicate things as now he had little to no idea what she could be planning for the Dib. He was all too aware that this was a race to get to the human first. Whoever got him would undoubtedly take over the planet as they would no longer have anything to stop their plans.

Oddly enough, Zim wasn't very concerned about what Tak had planned for the human. During recent days he had added a new factor to the simulations, his former partner's revenge had never been settled. Indeed they had shared a base for months, but she had reminded him with that message that as soon as he was no longer needed, she would destroy him. Things had changed over the course of their partnership, but he knew from experience that revenge was not something you could ever totally get rid of.

Zim shook himself of these deep thoughts and looked back to his experiment. It had been surrounded by an energy resistant barrier and the inside decontaminated to get accurate results from this test. Smiling to himself he was about to pull the lever for perhaps the third or fourth time that night when the slight swishing sound of a door being opened resounded throughout the room. The smile disappeared as the Irken turned to face his minion.

Gir normally would have burst into the room from a nearby elevator shaft or vent, this time, he used the door. Zim completely failed to notice the change in routine as he was far more agitated with the intrusion happened rather than how it happened. It was not bad enough that the little machine had been missing for a week, haven't answered calls or told him where he was going; now he had to interrupt his work for a unknown reasons that could never be good enough.

Zim did not turn away to face his minion, Instead he directed most of his attention to the computer. He twisted dials and pulled levers to their correct places, it was not entirely needed as he had done this before and the computer regulated it all, but he felt the need to look away from Gir. It was only after he finished that he noticed the silence. The little robot had not said a word, just standing there, watching, judging. Luckily the silence ended with Gir speaking first.

"Master?" A pause. Zim found that these two seemingly insignificant words sent a cold shiver down his spine. This brought with it foreboding thoughts and speculations as to why the little bot sounded so crestfallen. These thoughts were quickly suppressed and Zim fought remained calm and controlled despite these disturbing warnings. He turned around to face Gir.

"Yes Gir. What is it." Zim's voice responded seemingly without thought or confirmation from his brain. Inwardly he flinched at the harshness of it while examining the little robot. Normally this act would be done with a critical eye, usually he would be disappointed. However, at this particular moment the Irken was so far gone he did not pay much attention to the little robot's deplorable state aside from the obvious.

It seemed that the bot had been neglecting to go to the computer for repairs. Rust had built up along his joints and around his face, grease stained his hands and eyes and rank cheese stuck to certain parts of his face. Zim remarked to himself of how it looked like the Earth 'abstract' artwork, this was not a complementing look for an evil minion. Gir allowed his rusty joints to move his arms behind his back and his head bend downwards enough to drop his gaze to the floor in front of his master. They stood like that, frozen in complete unfamiliar-ness.

The silence began to grate on Zim's nerves. Why Gir could not just spit it out. This was so uncharacteristic of his minion that he felt the need to respond first as if to encourage him to go farther with his request.

"Gir. What Is It?" Once again, he spoke as if the little robot had been a horrible inconvenience for the past two years. Zim failed to notice as Gir flinched backwards a bit before responding with his gaze still trained on the floor.

"When is Mimi coming back?" Zim choked up for a moment. Gir sounded so sad that it was almost impossible to not feel the unhappiness that he seemed to radiate. He knew that he and Tak were at odd ends of a battle right now but for some reason or another, he didn't feel right brining his minion into the fray of it all. Deciding now was not even close to the appropriate time to broach this topic, he immediately redirected their conversation.

"Uh, Gir? Could you go get me some supplies? I know we are low on something." It was only after the words left his mouth that he remembered that his minion's machinery would undoubtedly recognize his attempt to change a potentially dangerous subject for them both. They both knew now that Tak and Mimi were not coming back. Zim had always known but Gir hat tried to deny it. Despite this, the little robot simply hung his head and quietly left the room.

Zim sighed to himself and listened to the door swish closed. It was not a pleasant thing to do but unfortunately it had to be done at some point. Zim turned back to the machine he was previously working one when he felt something stinging his eye. Absentmindedly he reached up to his face and wiped away a clear liquid. Zim sniffed and looked down at his gloves.

At the sight of the tears the first thing that entered his mind was complete confusion. What could this warm wet liquid be? Upon recognizing it the confusion was immediately replaced by a sense of intense burning anger that forced him to smear the horrifyingly awful liquid on a sweat cloth and tossing that into the incinerator. Furiously and with new speed and determination, Zim started once more to work. Throughout the process he repeated two words that were frightening even to him. _Not Defective. Not Defective. Not Defective._

* * *

Dib opened his eyes after another deep and restful sleep. He had not dreamed for the first time in weeks and it felt good. Perhaps the nightmares would finally leave him? Dib shook these thoughts from his head with the common term 'let's not jinx it.' Indeed he was somewhat afraid that fate would strike down his hopes with even more horrifying thoughts of Tak killing herself or Zim coming back from the grave to get revenge.

Dib hopped up onto a stool and looked into the mirror. Like always his hair remained it's scythe-like shape despite an entire night of tossing and turning in dreamless sleep. Weird but not much as every day was like that. He quickly brushed his teeth, cleaned his glasses and threw on a new blue shirt before making his way across the hallway and down the stairs.

Like every day, Gaz was sitting on the couch playing her game slave and watching TV. Dib walked into the kitchen and opened the pantry without a single word of good morning. Inside, every box of cereal was empty. He sighed but refused to let his sister's odd cravings and contradictory small frame get in the way of a possibly good day.

Taking deep breaths, Dib walked over to the fridge, got a piece of cold toast and a glass of water. Both were gone in seconds and soon he was getting ready to leave. He threw on a winter coat and some thin but warm gloves. The winter was still cold and would remain that way for quite a while before the sun shown it's ugly red face and turned things boiling hot. But those thoughts were best saved for a different time.

Dib turned around from the door and looked at Gaz. She hadn't said a word to him all day. He wondered briefly is he should even bother in breaking her concentration long enough for a goodbye, but she would not appreciate it any more that he would. He opened the door and without another word left the warm house for the bitter cold world. The human shivered momentarily before setting off down the street with a purpose. Cold as it was he needed to do something today. Something important.

As he walked Dib let his mind wander to the farthest corners of his imagination. Normally this would be dangerous as he usually thought up some horrible monsters ready to destroy mankind. However, at the moment he simply wanted to take his mind off of the cold and the horrible angst he was feeling for the evil plans that Zim, for obvious reasons, would never be able to carry out.

That had been one of the hardest parts in adjusting to the new routine. Zim had been a factor in his life for over a year and caused general hell for Dib at every opportunity. During the weeks out of the hospital he needed to accept that no one was going to try and shoot him off into another dimension where there was an evil moose trapped in a white room or turn him into a living baloney sausage thing. It was a hard adjustment, and to this day he had trouble distinguishing past from the present.

As he walked Dib noticed how empty the streets were. Sure there was a person here or there, a group on the corner talking about last week's snow storm or the one that was supposedly coming up. He had decided to leave very early for this very purpose and fewer people meant less prying eyes or willing witnesses.

As he walked, one might have noticed that the ground became more and more littered with trash and rubble. The new school would be reinstalled a month from now when the snow wasn't in the way of a building drop. This served Dib's purpose perfectly as ho one had any cause to be here for any reasons any more.

The human looked around for some time before finding where it all began. The center of the playground was now a frozen over crater with broken bits of everything on the ground. He remembered the taunt that had finally pushed Zim over the edge of becoming a homicidal time bomb. Was it worth all of this trouble?

Dib walked around some more until he found the swing set that Tak would always swing on while Zim played the role of guard dog. This was where a lot of their fights had started and then quickly ended with outside intervention. The metal posts that used to hold up the chains were now scorched and halfway melted. The chains that used to swing back and forth with Tak were now snapped and useless.

Dib found himself looking back at the bench that he and his sister would sit at and 'talk' about stuff. It was hard and unforgiving after a few minutes. The bench had been bent backwards and partially melted just as the poles of the swing set were. The center of the bench had been split and bent to the side so that it looked as if some very heavy person broke through the solid stele base.

Finally he found himself where it all ended. A small hole in the ground, now partially filled with snow and ash. The bent metal atop the hole gave it a makeshift tombstone feeling that Dib could not shake for the life of himself. Dib knelt to the ground as if he were in great pain from the pressure building in his chest or the sob that threatened to escape his throat. It should never have come to this.

He pulled off both gloves and set them aside as they would only get in the way. Resisting all primal urges to run off and cry, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small piece of paper. He took a deep, shaking breath and set it in the hole. The cold bit into his newly ungloved hands before he slipped them back on. The Dib, former paranormal investigator and alien obsesser whispered his final words to an old friend before leaving without looking back.

Like a thick fog after a cool summer night, the words seemed to hang in the air long after he was gone. His final words to an enemy on the smoldering aftermath of a fateful day were of defeat and sadness. Dib simply told the darkness residing in the makeshift grave that in the end, Zim had won.

**I liked writing the part with Dib in it. The first part with Zim was to hint his plans and how Gir will play a part in them. I want you guys to know that I am aware that Gir is OOC in this particular chapter. I also want you to know that I have very good reasons for this. As I stated before Gir is VERY hard for me to write as I like to be descriptive of emotions, thoughts and actions and their correlation to each other. I cannot rationalize what Gir thinks.**

**Now you all know the drill, don't like it and ill fix it. Want something to happen, tell me and I'll do it. Glad you guys have stuck with me thus far and now that this chapter is out of the way, or soon will be, I can get started on the more action packed part of it all.**


	11. Prisoners

The pink, black and purple halls of Tak's ever expanding base glistened even in the dark lighting. Everything was brand new and dust free. A dull light, originating from somewhere above through the pipes that covered the ceiling, shone down a dreary beam tainted purple. The silence was completely and totally earsplitting so to speak. Nothing, no one was here. Not even a flea lived in this hallway. Of course nothing lasts forever, and true to this saying's meaning, a dark shape threw its shadow across the corridor as its owner rushed to its destination.

Tak scowled to herself as she speed walked and sulked through the hallway. Someone had gotten in, not just anyone though. A human got in her base, through her security and countermeasures. She didn't dare think about what might have happened if the ignorant monkey hadn't tripped the inner house's slithers sensors. Indeed it had been very bad that he had been able to sneak up on her while she slept. How many more would she have not caught if this one hadn't been so careless?

This one had been far too close. If the Dib had somehow gotten hint of her plan, he could have gotten in and caused some serious damage… like last time. Tak thought back to the weenie stand 'incident' with Dib being mislead by Zim. The whole thing had been one enormous disaster as the large headed fool had overloaded the core and leveled the entire thing. The Irken thought back to the explosion and shuddered before continuing. It was nothing that needed to be worried about now.

Tak turned a corner, came to face a door and waited for it to scan her bio-signature. A small dot on the door became illuminated and shone a beam of light that scanned her body before disappearing. The machine beeped and opened for her as it registered it's master, the Irken ground her teeth together and entered a lab room.

The room in itself was enormous with a high ceiling and enough bio containment tubes lining the walls to contain the entire city for any of her tests. That would be neat, but she had much more important things to do at the moment. The far wall of the lab was occupied by an enormous computer that served as her personal command module for anything and everything contained in the room. The alien scowled and thought about her situation while prepping the computer's command codes.

With no one to talk to about these awful 'feelings' Tak felt the need to take her anger, and every other feeling, out on something. Rather than risk damaging the heavy plated drone course, she decided to do some good old fashioned surgery with a very special friend who stopped by. Oddly enough, she felt sympathy for him, but her PAK demanded something be done now about such situations. It craved the feeling of cut flesh beneath a very sharp blade to feel that rush of energy Irkens get when working on such things as this. Pitiful, but she was in no mood, and of little energy, to go against programming at the moment.

While the base was setting into motion her plans Tak needed to bide her time and let things play out for a bit. Testing stuff would be fun for the time being, human testing to be more precise. This might even help out with the plans if everything worked right. Tak extended her Pak legs and moved over to a dispenser. She attached a tentacle to the machine and it dropped a small package into her awaiting arms. Convenient how much easier things were when your base wasn't talking back to you. Withdrawing her cable and Pak legs the Irken moved over to a nearby examining table.

Tearing open the package quickly the alien glanced inside. Within the small sterilized box, there was an assortment of cleaned tools, gloves goggles and other various devices that served as a 'starter' kit. This would help her get the experiments going. It didn't have everything she needed, but everything else could just be ordered or picked out from the racks and racks of tools hidden behind walls and in drawers. Wasting no more time, she slipped on a pair of deep purple gloves and a pair of pink tinged goggles. Clothing put on, she then laid out all necessary equipment on the nearby floating tables.

That done, Tak turned to bio-containment tube number one. Inside a man floated. He no longer wore anything he had been captured in and was locked into a forced sleep for the time being. Understanding it's master's will, the base sent down a data pad to her from the ceiling with a cable. The Irken grabbed the pad from the machine and reconfigured it's wireless connections. After a moment the pod and the pad were synced. Tak tapped a few buttons and awoke her little guest.

It took a second but eventually the man's eyes fluttered open. His vitals jumped for a moment as he tried to figure out where he was. It took only a moment of looking around for the Detective to lock eyes with Tak. She grinned triumphantly and somewhat evilly while she let his situation sink in before draining the tube of its thick sticky gel. Now only suspended by cables attached to his arms, the man began to show the first signs of fear.

A freezing cold metal table extended and the cables laid him down on it with a towel covering his lover body. The tube in his mouth disconnected after everything else had been removed and all muscle relaxers had been applied. Tak approached while humming a soft tune to herself, she waved over a specific area right in the man's view in order to allow him to see what was coming next, and understand his situation was hopeless.

A large panel slid up from the seemingly seamless floor as the base's invisible sensors registered her hand movement's meaning. Fully extended, the top half of the panel bent backwards and folded apart to reveal rows and rows of surgical tools and other sharp and menacing looking blades that glistened in the light. Each was bent a certain way that made them notably different from the others and all the more cruel looking.

Tak took her sweet time looking trough them for the perfect blade. She knew all too well that the detective whose name was Wilson was watching her the entire time. Glancing back she noticed that he had broken out into a 'cold' sweat so to speak .His eyes were growing wider and wider every second she paused over a certain row of rather horrifying tools and then moved on to another with even more deviously painful ones resting. The processed continued until the Irken began to grow bored with this game. Selecting a wickedly curved knife almost as long as her arm and with serrated edges, the female approached the 'patient.'

As to prolong the moment for them both, Tak felt a cruel impulse from her primal nature to draw a long dotted line on his chest and around his neck. Wielding the knife in her hands and positioning it carefully, Tak looked back into the man's eyes and saw fear and sadness. She wiped her eyes and turned back to her work before muttering an inconsistent apology that her PAK had been unable to suppress during its control.

The blade descended slowly, agonizingly slow really, for them both. Wilson on the verge of regretful tears because of the life he had wasted and Tak dreading what she was about to do. Each watched as it descended and almost touched the skin of his chest. It hovered there. Frozen. The Irken could feel the fear rolling off of him with his sweat. It smelled deliciously satisfying, like a bottle of wine perfect for sipping at while watching an orbital sweep.

Tak was jolted from her thoughts and away from her victim by an alarm that suddenly went off. As the blade passed away from him the man cringed and whimpered slightly as he had thought that the air brushing by his skin had been the knife finishing its decent.

Scowling at the interruption she set the knife down on its specific place and looked back at the man. He would have to go through the pain of anticipation now along with of the pain of eventual surgery. A monitor decided in front of her and displayed what the alarm's purpose was, though she knew almost for certain whom it was and for what reason they had started.

After a bit of reading Tak smiled to herself and typed in the activation codes to Mimi. The games had begun for now. She wouldn't be needed for the moment and could continue with her current assignment of preparing her living project for his new purpose on the earth.

* * *

Dib walked slowly away from the destroyed remains of the school. He felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his chest and shoulders. The air seemed fresher, the temperature less biting and to make everything perfect, no one was around. Not a single person in sight. Indeed Dib was enjoying his little stroll along the side walk. Even going as far as to allow a grin to slither across his face it the wake of such relief that came from this simple act. The human felt that he could accept that they were gone now, life would go on anyway.

Everything might improve now, He thought to himself quietly while walking along the eerily quiet and empty streets. Without trying to prove Zim was an alien, perhaps the other kids would stop picking fun at him. Maybe he could talk to his father about 'real' science and start a new life that way while still helping humanity prepare for the coming alien swarm. Until then… he would have to live his life and work to help his fellow man.

Dib imagined himself, years from now as the new Dr. Membrane, leading humanity as a united whole to defend their planet from an armada of aliens coming to enslave them. The human remembered his purpose for saving the earth, life would have to go on for now. But he would never rest until the earth was totally safe from all that would seek to harm it and it's ways.

Continuing on with a new spring in his step, Dib rushed off dawn a nearby ally that would cut his trip's time in half. Walking quickly and breathing Deeply as to prolong the moment, the human failed to notice the complete lack of people and how weird this would normally be in a large city such as this. There were no cars, people, dogs or cats. The boy was practically consumed within his own thoughts as he exited the ally and walked into the normally busy street that was now deserted.

Dib hummed to himself as he crossed an empty intersection. He got to the very center and tripped over something, causing him to face plant into the snow. Looking back disdainfully, Dib noticed a box in the middle of the road. Just sitting there, like someone had put it there just for him to stumble upon.

It was at this very moment that Dib noticed the empty silence. There were no distant explosions, cars honking, or people talking. Everyone was gone. Despite this emptiness he felt as if the entire world were watching him as he got up from the blackened snow. Looking back at the box, he felt compelled to go to it. Like when looking down a long hallway, the box seemed to get closer and closer as he looked at it.

Moving closer Dib noticed that it was wrapped up like a present, bow, tag and pink and red striped paper. Something was menacing about it, he felt sure that it was not there when he had first stated across the street and then he just trips over a present. Acting totally on impulse, the human reached out and grabbed the tag that seemed to quiver with energy, or flutter in the wind.

Flipping the little flap of paper upwards, Dib read the inside. The words were printed and uniform black, they read as follows; _to a special friend who deserves all I received._ Something in the back of the human's mind screamed of tricks and danger but it was quickly suppressed by curiosity. Slowly he reached for the wrapping, gripping it tightly he pulled the bow off. All the while he wondered who would think of him a such a friend as to give him a gift.

Immediately he regretted the choice as the lid shot off and mechanical wires entangled him in their grasp. They snaked around his arms and legs, quickly rendering him immobile and venerable to everything, all before he could even yell for help that wasn't there. Most of the pieces fell into place, someone wanted him captured and had done something to get everyone away.

The box bellow him dispensed a floating screen that faced him and went to static. Dib wondered briefly who could possibly have the technology to set a trap like this. With the technology he suspected Tak. His questions were answered but a second after the static cleared.

"Hello Dib." A shrill and annoying voice greeted him as the wires encased his body like a horrible straight jacket. Dib's eyes swelled in horror of who he was looking at. I couldn't possibly be him, but indeed like a ghost come back for revenge, Zim glared back at him through the screen with sunken eyes and a sickly looking face that appeared to be deprived of nutrition. Dib's own personal Judgment Day had come in the form of a fallen enemy.

**I believe that this is the first time I have gotten every one of the major characters together in a chapter. Well anyway, the moment has come friends. Dib is captured via his own stupidity, Wilson is about to become Tak's own personal anger vent and the final battle is gaining momentum.**

**Allow me to take this moment to thank all reviewers who have stuck with me so far and kept being so helpful and nice. Though I could do without the nice I still appreciate the helpfulness. It cant have been easy for all of you to put up with my agonizingly slow pace of getting to this point but I'm glad you did. Thanks again and I appreciate all of your input.**

**Now That this moment is upon us I must ask you all what you think will happen next. Obviously Tak has a plan but what is it? What part does Wilson play in it? Who will die, who won't die and so on. I'm getting pretty tired of trying to motivate you readers to tell me what you think. A good 87% of you have added one of my stories as a favorite but 64% of you don't tell me what you liked\disliked about it… its frustrating. Sorry for the long author comment but I had to say a few things.**


	12. The Return

"No…" Dib whispered in complete shock as the pipe like tentacles released him, recognizing his complete lack of will. The human fell to the snow hard but quickly scrambled up to his trembling legs and weak feet. He locked eyes with Zim and began to back up all while shaking his head in horror of the situation at hand. Even if he could not even begin to try to wrap it all together in words other than what he was stuttering uncontrollably in the face of what was almost certainly an alien specter.

"It can't be…" Dib started but couldn't continue. Zim's frown deepend as his screen moved closer and the tentacles surrounded the human. There would be no escape this time. No words could explain the emotions raging inside of the small terrified boy. Indeed there was fear, there was confusion, but for some odd reason there was also a soul crushing feeling of reformation and relief. He continued stuttering while attempting to comprehend all of these feelings.

"You c-can't be… Zim." Dib stuttered pathetically as he backed himself into a brick wall and proceeded to press himself to it in a vain attempt at getting away. Zim moved the screen closer to his quivering nemesis and typed something into his keyboard. That done, the alien leaned closer to the screen and glared closely while examining the boy, remembering every moment, memorizing every detail. The human continued to babble until the alien became satisfied and broke him from his thoughts.

"Oh I can assure you it is me Dib." Zim hissed out before a round of lung rupturing coughs that only served to make him even angrier. It was at this very moment that Dib examined his long lost enemy. He noticed that the alien was hunched over his keyboard and clutching one side as if in pain, the Irken's eyes were sunken and dulled. Finally to top it all off, Zim had several empty syringes lying on the counter in front of him. As the human watched, he grabbed one that was full of a purplish fluid and injected himself. Immediately afterwards he stopped coughing.

"How did you manage to survive?" Dib felt his body ask, seemingly on its own as he had not formed the question in his mind. Zim smiled, or rather sneered, and gathered his thoughts. The human had time to spare on the countdown. He reached up with his casted hand on impulse and scratched his head, the human took notice of this newly metal hand and recognized that he had held mini moose with that claw, now destroyed. Despite this, the Irken continued on as if nothing was different and all were right in the grand scheme.

"Irkens have their methods Dib. I'd tell you more but I would rather you find out for yourself." Dib felt a chill go down his spine at Zim's vague answer but he felt that his body was taking matters into its own hands once again. He took a few steps foreword and looked his old nemesis in the eye. The Irken ignored the uncertainty that was jabbed into his mind by the human's newly found bravery. Glancing away from the screen the Irken grinned to himself before glancing back at the boy with a look of anticipation.

"Now you listen here you little-" Dib stopped, he felt something wrong, be it a sixth sense or intuition, it told him to look down. Taking a quick step back he noticed something rather alarming on the ground beneath him. There, painted crudely on melting snow and pavement alike, with red paint was a large X. The human acted completely on impulse when he turned and ran just as a loud sonic boom could be heard in the outer atmosphere and Zim started to laugh manically.

Not daring to look back the human dodged every one of Zim's machine's tentacles while sprinting away from the X. He hadn't been running for more than three seconds when the area just behind him exploded in a hellish fury of fire, melted snow and crushed pieces of pavement. Just before these flames hit him, Dib dove under a nearby car only to have it blown away by the force of the impact, leaving him exposed to whatever had just hit the ground.

A loud ringing took up occupation in the boy's ears as he got up from his crouching position in a daze. Looking around he saw nothing but the dirt dust and disintegrated cement and brick. Once on his feet, Dib stumbled like a drunk through the soundless barrier that now filled his head. He moved away from whatever had just landed, or so he thought. The sunlight lit this dust like a curtain hiding a horrible surprise, more relevantly this clouded where he was going and what he was seeing.

Every building could be another machine or clever trap laid by Zim so entering was far too risky. The streets were too exposed for his liking and anything could be hiding in the ground bound cloud surrounding him. So that option was just as displeasing. None of these thoughts affected Dib's mindless stumble hopefully away from the Irken. With the ringing, hours could have passed or years, for all he knew, he could be going in circles.

Finally Dib came upon a car, slumping against it Dib looked back from where he came. Much to his relief, the powder in the air had already begun to disperse and the world became semi-clear once again. This sense of reprieve was quickly crushed by what the theoretical curtain had been hiding. The boy's eyes widened in terror at the horrible spectacle before him while backing up slowly.

Like a red and black monument of his own destruction, an alien machine rose up into the sky. It had a slightly humanoid figure with one large arm that reminded him very much of a mace with its conveniently placed spikes, the other arm was a bit smaller but had equally deadly looking cannon mounted onto the 'hand.' Two legs that had wide bases to keep the thing steady and a cruel helmet looking head that shone in the sunlight rested in between the shoulder plates. The overall body was covered in spikes and tubes that seemed to pulse with energy as he watched. Finally, in the center of the robot's chest was a small triangular symbol that Dib had hoped he would never see. The entire robot was easily twice the size of the regular house.

Out of the lingering dust, a miraculously intact, floating, alien screen approached the traumatized human. The glass was cracked and the metal bent but the machine still transmitted Zim smiling while sitting in what was most likely the robot's command chair. Once close enough the screen turned to face the robot, the Irken was admiring things from Dib's view. Once he had his fill, it turned back to face the human.

"And now Dib. To finish what we started back at the playground." Zim burst out in one last fit of insane laughter as the screen went to static and fell to the rubble littered ground. Not daring to move, the boy simply stared up at the robot. There was a brief flash originating from the bot's visor before a loud, mechanical voice roared over the deserted city.

"Target Acquired. Engaging immediately. Prepare for maiming." The voice boomed ominously before lifting its massive arm to point at Dib. A light began to shine inside of the cannon and a series of beeps signaled the weapon charging up as he watched. By the first beep, the human did the logical thing and ran like he never had before. Fear completely clouded the human's mind as he blindly ran for his life. Turning a corner, there was a sudden explosion, down the street he was just on, that threw the boy off his balance for a moment.

Dib used this time to look backwards only to see flaming trees, buildings and rubble and a pursuing robot charging up another shot. It began to follow him with one enormous step after the other, crushing cars and toppling buildings in it's wake. Looking up ahead he spotted something… another corner! He could hide there for a moment and figure out a plan. The second shot was fired and the buildings to the sprinting human were obliterated. Scorched to brick and dust in a mere second. Dib rounded the corner and hid in an alley between two houses the stomping stopped and the robot called out again.

"Primary gun overheating, secondary weapon's priming, beginning search and destroy tactics." The sound of senseless destroying raged behind him as the monstrous machine went into a rampage looking for him. Dib, hopeless and panting for breath, looked for every option as the sound of the robot's maiming grew ever closer. It grated on his nerves and made it almost impossible to concentrate. Desperately, the human looked to the ground and spotted a manhole.

Of course! How had he not seen it before, the perfect escape where he couldn't be seen! Zim had made a horrible mistake now that he had shown his hand to the world. If Dib could get away then when everyone showed up there would be plenty of evidence to prove the Irken Invader was an Alien. Far too tired and frightened to be happy, the human slipped under the nearby grating and into the waste filled tunnels under the city.

The tunnels, much like the city, was deserted of all but the rats and cockroaches. The child found himself wading through waste deep trash filled water that was most likely infested with god knows what. All while hearing the loud explosions and overall destruction raging above him. But for the moment, he was safe from Zim and his horrible robot. Ignoring all the new information thrown at him in the past hour, the Dib pressed on, away from his returned foe, to safety.

* * *

Zim furiously typed at his computer within the control room. His nonexistent brow was furrowed in anger and concentration as he glanced between the keys and the robot's scanner. The wall he was facing was covered in screens, all displaying a different view of the robot. One showed the layout of the city, another displayed a heat signature reader and yet another was a motion sensor. Others simply showed the back view or lower porthole of the bot to prevent sneaky natives to get to him.

Zim had no idea why all of the humans were gone, and frankly it unnerved him as this was far from the norm in the city. But when they all disappeared he had to act quickly as it could be part of Tak's plan. A possible sign that she was going to act soon that had forced his hand. It seemed that despite her head start, he had gotten here first and started his assault.

Zim was in the middle of typing another command into the machine when the small red blip on his heat and motion sensors disappeared. Checking and rechecking all visual reports from the robot, the Irken allowed his anger to take over once again. He slammed his hands onto the dashboard and started to yell at the screen only to be interrupted in mid threat by a round of hacking coughs. He failed to notice that his improvised metal claw left a stunning dent in the solid metal.

Zim reached over to the nearby counter and gripped another syringe. His unsteady hands and numb fingers fumbled with the needle before he was able to inject himself in the arm with its medical fluids. A Burning sensation cleansed the scratchy feeling in his lungs and stopped the coughing. Turning back to the screens, the Irken reached for the communication's link. He tapped the button quickly and called to his minions.

"Gir. Mini-"more choking that left him without breath. It left him panting after about a minute "-Mini moose. Bring me more medicine." The order was quick and they would be up in a moment. That done, Zim returned to his monitors and began to type in search protocols for his little maimbot.

"I'll find you Dib. You can't get away that easily." Zim whispered to himself. Taking care not to start more weakening repertory spasms by getting too vocal with his anger. Minuets passed and the Irken grew more and more impatient with his robot's lack of progress in finding the human. There was one person in the city and he could not find him. By Irk! He had some of the most advanced tracking equipment in his base installed on this thing and still nothing.

Zim was about to type in another command to his bot when each of his screens went to static. One by one they lost signal and left the small sick alien blind, deaf, and stunned in his chair. There was no way the Dib could hack his computers again could he? Each screen faded to black and then transmitted a very familiar female. There were thirty different Tak's staring at him from each of his monitors with a slight grin and a slight grimace.

"Tak...?" Zim whispered in awe. This couldn't be possible… He got here first, put up firewalls and coded links, a direct connection would be needed to do this- His train of thought stopped. A sudden flashback brought him to the five minutes of video he had gotten from her base. That opening between them would have been plenty long enough to counter hack and plant a virus and spy bug. By Irk it was genius.

"No. Tak, he's mine! I have to get to Dib first-" Zim started to reason with her when she cut him off before allowing herself to get too sympathetic with her former partner.

"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that Zim. You're too much of a threat for my plans for this planet to stay in the game but I hope you know that I am sorry for this." Tak raised a claw and held it over a button on her computer dashboard. Meanwhile in her partner's control room the back door opened and Gir and Mini moose came in. Each had the glass tubes in their possession and each stopped when they saw Tak. The female faltered for a moment when she looked at the three of them. It had to be done.

"Goodbye Zim." Tak tapped the button on her computer and watched from her orbital platform as the maimbot in the city bellow self destructed, destroying the entire downtown city and erasing all evidence from the map forever. Tak took a deep but shuddering breath and slumped into her chair. He was gone, but she could still get the Dib.

**Not going to lie to you guys but I am tripping on caffeine right now so this could go either way. Writing at four in the morning can't be good for my health or sanity but hey it helps me catch up. Lot of things could have gone wrong here and I'm not in the best condition to be writing so there will be mistakes I can fix later, but still, let me know what you find.**

**Here is that more action packed chapter I was talking about. A bit mild now that I reread it but I can fix that if you guys want. Don't worry, there will be more destruction and a more final epic battle. I've got to say, that I like how this turned out. Gave me the feeling I was looking for at the necessary parts but It's not up to me. Did you guys get the twist ending? The relation to that past chapter? If not then please reread or tell me if I didn't hint about it back then.**

**Now, I have been getting a few reviews asking me for longer chapters. Guys don't get me wrong, I would love to get more details and reasons in per chapter but honestly, I have a job to account for. Not exactly elegant or cool but this is not what my superiors are paying me for. If you really want me to get in longer chapters I would need to take about two weeks per chapter instead of the usual one. Let me know what you think I should do here.**

**For the love of god- For all of you who havent figured it out by now, I cannot legally kill Zim or any other charecters. That is part of my contract. I will not tell you how he is alive only that he is. Remember that everything in my stories are connected, there is a reason for everything. to start you all off on the right trail, what was Zim working back when he and gir had a little tense chat?**


	13. To Punish and Enslave

Zim sat silently in his chair watching absolutely helpless as his entire control center went to static. Communications, video relay and transmitters all shifted into total junk in less than a minute. Gir and Mini moose quietly laid their medical load onto a nearby counter and backed out of the room just as wordlessly. They had lived with Zim far too long to remain ignorant of his tendencies following defeat and would prefer not to be objects that he takes such rage out on.

Despite this previously thought inevitability, the seconds, minutes and eventually hours passed by and Zim remained open mouthed, staring blankly. True to his face, nothing was going around in his head aside from the backlogged word 'defeat' that seemed impossible for him to process. Slowly, his claws clenched together into weak fists as the information was conceived within his mind.

Tak's training only made it worse as now; he knew exactly what stupid mistakes he had made. He had been too eager and jumped ahead. He expected Tak to try her plan first when she was simply infiltrating his systems as he practically did her work for her. Reacting slowly Zim typed a command into his computer only to be answered with the low beep that signaled the computers current incapability to accept typed commands. Perhaps the vocal command imputing would be functional like last time?

"Computer? Status report?" He croaked weakly, his voice sounding like that of a scared child calling for its mother. Nothing responded much to Zim's fear. Looking back to his screens, he watched in horror as they all began to display the systems damaged or not responding. The Reactor core, Storage bays, door controls, lower security, upper security, computer brain stasis, heating and cooling systems… the list went on and on. However the base was able to maintain its low level construction and repair systems.

"So we have that…" Zim sighed to himself halfheartedly. His mind was still reeling as to what to do. Tak had severally crippled his base, this was much more sophisticated than last time, and it seemed she wasn't taking any chances. Doors were locked, security was aiming on her targets and all major systems were responding remotely to her codes. He was trapped, and with the heating system as it was, all his former partner needed to do was turn it off and he would freeze from being too deep underground. The situation was hopeless and he was totally under her control.

Deciding that impulsive struggling would be unproductive for the moment, the Invader simply relaxed and tried to formulate a plan. Leaning back, he eventually left his mind to drown in hopelessness and anticipation for what she had planned for him. And he was sure she had something planned as Tak was not the leave-them-to-starve kind of evil genius. Zim flipped of the sound systems off to spare himself listening to that white noise for what could end up being a few days.

Left in the silence and inactivity, he began to feel as sick as he was. It started with just the general weakness and slow thinking. Then, as more time slid away, he began to feel the throbbing pain from every part of his body and that all too familiar tickling and scratching feeling deep in his throat. Suppressing it by ignoring it, Zim did his best to concentrate on getting to the other side of the room so he could get his medication. Slowly he tried to ease himself out of his chair.

The Irken fell from his seat in the command station and landed hard on his face. Groaning in pain, Zim attempted to drag his body to the counter nearest to the door and by extension, his medicine. One claw after the other he dragged his nonresponsive body to the other side of the room, his metal cast making loud clanking noises as it slammed into the ground. The distance that he had previously assumed to be no more than twenty yards had somehow become more associated to a mile.

It would be fine. He would get to the other side of the room, inject himself with his medication and then work on getting to the med bay for intensive treatment. Zim started to curse himself under his breath as it had been his choice to forsake getting treatment for the sickness he was developing in order to work longer. Now he would need to live in a tube for a while to get his air processors drained and his wounds reprocessed for possible germs.

Halfway through the room, Zim's power finally began to wane on him. Using his last ounce of strength, he activated his PAK legs and just barely managed to prop himself up against the wall, right across from a vent. The motion activated camera watched him intently as if to mock him in his final moments before drowning in his own body fluids. Hoping desperately that Tak was watching and still had enough sympathy for him to possibly send help, he looked at it defiantly.

Air became scarce as the oxygen processing tubes began to fill with fluid and eventually his PAK went on automatic drainage, forsaking the wellbeing of its host for its own survival. Zim's underdeveloped and underused lungs sucked in air on their own for the first time since 'birth'. The pain was severe and it was near impossible to think correctly as his own lungs could not support him for more than a few minutes. His breathing began to sound as if he had smoked his entire life nonstop and it struck him as foreign.

Zim's last few minutes of consciousness were accompanied by an odd sense of clarity. Like a rush or cool water flowing over his body. He suddenly knew that the end would be slow and painful as his PAK would drain, start breathing for him again and then fill up two hours later in a cycle that could last days or hours depending on how much strength he had left. None of it mattered to him as the feeling washed away such thoughts.

Few words could describe the sensation but he was not about to waste his last moments trying to describe this blessing to himself. Slumping back to the floor, Zim closed his eyes and ignored his pathetic, ragged breathing. His mind reeled as he wondered what to occupy his mind before death, what would he think about before the end?

Thoughts such as his luck finally running out, fate slowly pulling his soul into it's hands one breath at a time, and the delusions of sounds invading his mind. There were voices that seemed to be flashbacks of his life, a few were parts he would have preferred to forget. His people laughing at him, his leaders banishing him, his overlords the control brains judging him, and finally Tak saving him from his own depression a little over a year ago were among the vocal onslaught. All this slowly faded into painless, black nothing as he lost more and more consciousness.

A minuet went by as he thought about how he came to accept using the term death with the possessiveness he held for it currently. He had always assumed that it would end quickly, in battle to a worthy adversary or in bed from old age, slowly withering away. Instead, he would suffer a painful and embarrassing death, lost to an army of germs in the middle of a conflict between him and a worthy opponent, Tak.

Thinking back on her leaving him was painful in ways one shouldn't feel when losing a temporary friend. He had known the time would come when she would leave and they would become enemies once again. It had always been a fact to both of them, but neither had wanted to broach the subject on what their previously thought 'professional' relationship was developing into. In the end, he didn't care that she left him is that was what she truly wanted, he just wished that he had the time to tell her… to tell her…

Just before Zim blacked out, the vent across from him popped open. Clinging to consciousness, he watched as Gir crawled out and looked around for something. Trying to speak, Zim managed a low moan. It was quiet, almost imperceptibly so, but Gir was in fact a robot and could hear it. Taking his time, the little machine walked over and sat down cross-legged in front of his struggling master, awaiting _vocal _commands.

Zim looked into the cold, unfeeling eyes of his minion. He attempted several times to speak but found that it brought his body dangerously close to going into a coughing fit. The only option left was to wait for his PAK to filter out it's fluids and start breathing for him again as there was almost no chance of Gir realizing that he needed medicine to be able to say anything. And so, they stared, Gir didn't look away because he didn't see anything wrong with just constantly looking at someone and Zim simply could not work up enough energy to do more than hang on to reality with his current amount of air.

"You wanna play master?" Gir shouted at the crumpled and limp Irken. Unable to say no or do anything other than stay awake, his little robot squealed in delight and ran out of Zim's view. He returned with a small syringe full of a thick purple liquid. His mind went on overdrive when he saw the medicine, so close, all he needed to do was- The little robot and aimed it at his master's eye.

"Were gonna play Doctor! I seen it on TV!" Fear enveloped Zim's mind as he looked down the tiny hole of the razor sharp needle ready to be jabbed in his eye. It began a depressingly slow decent at an oddly curved angle and just barely missed the ocular implant by just a few centimeters. Looking down, Zim watched in shock as the inch long needle buried itself in his chest. The pain was sudden and explosive as the sharp object injected it's fluids into him but in a moment, it was all gone.

In a burst of strength caused by the stimulants in the fluid, Zim tore the needle from his chest and threw it away before launching himself at his minion. Gir let out a scream of terror just before being squeezed in a delusional \thankful embrace that he had never encountered before by his master. The little robot just got the message that this was a hug and returned the favor when his master let go and extended his PAK legs.

"Thank you Gir. Now. We have work to do." Laughing manically, Zim let his body be carried by his PAK down into the depths of his base through Gir's vents. His little minion still clinging to his arm, lost in a moment long past. The game was not over yet, thinking to himself joyfully. If Tak was going to stoop that low then he would do likewise.

Crawling over security and under trip wires, Zim made his way to the elevator network spider webbing around his base. Once there, he pulled open a connecting vent and slid out. Keeping himself stationary by having his PAK legs spear the walls and climb for him. Looking down, the invader was able to see into the depths of his base that at some points was several miles deep. Some would be intimidated by this but the small Irken shrugged it off like he actually could see the bottom.

Gir looked down and hopped off his masters arm, falling into the depths screaming in apparent joy. Zim looked down with mild surprise before pressing himself against the wall to get out of the way. True to his prediction, the little robot was launched past him with the roar of his jets and psychotic laughter. The invader smiled to himself and allowed a small chuckle to escape his throat in the sudden rush or rebelliousness the moment brought him.

Continuing down the tunnel for a few yards, Zim began to wonder how he was going to pull something like this off. He wasn't even sure that he was going the right way as the comms relay was only in case of emergencies and so far he hadn't had resort to using it. The benefit of the station was a complete lack or remote control for the relay.

Reaching the tunnel he assumed was his base's main descending elevator line Zim began to descend into the depths of his base. Counting as the sealed doors passed by, he hoped that it would be there. Finally reaching Door number 432 he quickly placed his hands and feet against the sides of the tube to support himself and then had his PAK legs jab into the hair thin seam running down the middle of the door. With a tremendous amount of force, he pried open the door and hopped in.

Despite his former self doubt, here he was, surrounded by monitors and transmitters. Grabbing one he searched through caller numbers. The list scrolled and scrolled before coming to one listed just before he got a large supply of super weapons from the human's failed attempt at exposing him with his first, and last partner. Hoping the device was still activated, he called.

* * *

In the over world, far from where Zim was using his machines, a peaceful neighborhood rested as midnight settled in. The people all awoke in their beds for a single moment. All had no idea what had happened to them the day before, but they quickly fell asleep as the memories seeped in. Somewhere outside of their homes, it seemed that someone was not drifting off into a peaceful and comforted sleep.

Dib crawled out of the sewer through a storm drain in front of his house. He left a greenish grey trail of slime along his path like an enormous slug. The slime that covered him was still trying to stretch back into the trash pipes he just crawled out of like a long trail of snot. The smell was that of the common rat or homeless beggar and it radiated not only from the slime, but from the boy himself. His clothes were ragged and filthy from the underground but he didn't care. He was away from Zim and back at his house.

Dib's muscles received a new boost of energy as he looked up at the large looming house in front of him. This strength was required for him to pick himself up off of the ground and crawl to his front door. Once there, he got up to his useless feet, reached into his coat pocket and grabbed his slime covered keys.

His shaking hands flipped through one after the other before coming to the right one, unsteadily he tried to stab it into the handle slot. The draining adrenalin clouded him mind and made it hard to concentrate on tasks such as this, as such, he missed the key hole several times before grabbing it with both hands and pressing it into its place. The tumblers turned and the front door opened.

Gaz apparently wasn't home as there was not a single noise in the house, and their dad wasn't home like usual so he was completely alone. The darkness inside of his house somewhat disturbed him but without a second thought, Dib stumbled inside and slammed the door shut and listening to the automatic locking system.

Memories of the city destruction flashed through his mind as he descended into the basement, almost falling down because of his bumbling feet. He remembered the robot, the insignia it carried and the horrible sound of buildings being crushed like foam peanuts. Most of all however, he remembered the laughter, Zim's elated tone at the thought of revenge and the emotions that coursed though him when he saw his old nemesis.

Dib's foot did not hit a stair step and so he felt along the wall before his fingers brushed against a light switch. With a click, his father's 'office' was revealed under the loom of the overhead lights. The boy brushed past the machines and new experiments before coming to a large terminal with a stationary swiveling chair that he quickly hopped onto.

The terminal was designed by his father to intercept transmitions of all frequencies known to humankind today. This would let Dib see what the reporters had to say about the large robot ravaging the city and maybe intercept something from Zim. He booted up the terminal and connected a wireless spy network bug he had on his person at all times. Pulling out his laptop and checking to make sure the connection was good, he ran up to his room.

Dib was frantic as he grabbed all materials he might need, clothes, batteries from his secret stash under the floorboards, his broken camera and clock and one of his recording drives before stuffing them all in a black duffle bag he had under his bed for vacations. He had no idea how long he would be gone.

That done Dib sniffed his current clothes, recoiled in horror and listened for the sound of distant stomping. After hearing nothing, he tore off his filthy apparel and dove into the shower for but a single minute and taking the same amount of time to get out and get dressed in his spy equipment covered with his black overcoat.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder, the human walked out of the room, taking care to memorize every detail of his room. This was so when he returned, and he would return as he had promised himself that much, he would know that Gaz had not sold any of his stuff for a new videogame. Dib used this to justify making sure he would not forget what his room looked like if he didn't make it back.

Walking down the stairs, he unlocked the front door. And opened it up slightly and looking around. His eyes widened at the two police officers standing at his doorstep.

One stood in full gear with his gun's safety strap unbuckled and his hand falling casually to it while his companion wore a deep grey overcoat with some sort of under armor beneath it. His gun must have been hidden somewhere in the coat. He had a pleasant face that was complemented by a set of deep green eyes and a thick head of brown hair that appeared to have been whipped back in a rush that morning. On his chest there was a unit tag with his serial number and the name Wilson.

As Dib watched, trying to decide what to do, Wilson noticed him and pushed the door open a bit. Not forcefully, but enough to let the boy know that he was not going to have a door slammed in his face. The other officer gripped his gun carefully, but not threateningly as his friend looked down at the boy with a friendly and welcoming smile.

"Evening, sorry for the late night wakeup but would this happen to be the Membrane household?" The over coated cop asked politely while pushing his hands behind his back and holding them there. Dib was unable to do anything but nod to the man who in turn nodded to his partner who pulled the door from the boy's grasp and walked behind him.

"Are you Dib Membrane?" Wilson asked a bit more sternly. His previously pleasant face now appeared dark and foreboding and his smile became a bit lopsided and shady.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to come down to the station with me boy" The over coated man smiled at him through the darkness in a way that made Dib shudder as the other cop took his duffle bag from him and cuffed his hands behind his back.

**I am so sorry about last week guys. I really am, but as I said before, my other job comes first. I tried to make up fro my delay in making this chapter a bit longer. It was another continuation of the story for Zim and Dib as I want what Tak is doing to remain unknown. Wilson reappeared, due for your own interpretation. Reviews are appreciated and another chapter will be on time this Saturday.**


	14. The Storm

Dark, angry clouds built up in the atmosphere, twisting and turning within themselves along with the threat of the year's first thunderstorm. The coming storm cast the city below it's clouds into an even darker midnight shade. Few were awake at this ungodly hour to witness the storm growing, one who was wide awake, cared nothing for the usual end of winter weather. Or anything at all for the current moment.

Gaz walked slowly down the sidewalk towards home. Another late night at the arcade and just a few hours before the sun would come up, Perfect timing. Perhaps she could slip by Dib before he had the time to notice she wasn't home, thus sparing herself his paranoia and worrying. The cool breeze blew past her calm and composed form, obtaining nothing, not even a shiver.

It was on nights like tonight that Gaz felt the least amount of discontent for her surroundings. The air was cool, the people were silent and not a single thing broke her concentration. It was a great feeling, to be completely in control. On walks such as this she did not even require her game slave; the game would not be needed when she did not need to distract herself. Despite the controller's unusually comforting absence, she felt more in control of them than ever before.

Looking down the deserted road, the little gothic girl felt as if she were the last human on earth. To any normal person, this thought would be cause for alarm, Gaz however, felt nothing. She might actually enjoy being the only one around. No Dib, no Dad, no one but her to walk the streets ever again, oddly pleasant to think about. However, that reality had been passed up when Zim didn't succeed at his 'mission' so not another thought would be wasted on the subject.

Turning a corner Gaz came upon their home street. She quickly scanned the road with her eyes before continuing, one could never be too careful, and she was still a little spooked about her run in with that stalker freak in the snowstorm. Despite the previously thought 'clear coast' as she approached the house, she noticed something rather strange. A police car rested in the street just beyond their front yard. Two well-armed men opened their respective doors and approached the front door.

Deciding it would be best to not get involved in matters that did not concern her, Gaz continued around the house to the backyard. She quickly flipped through her keys and unlocked each dead bolt separately. The door swiveled inward and she quietly, but quickly, slipped in and closed it behind herself. Once all the locks were reset the little girl listened carefully to see if anyone else was in the house. Hearing nothing, not even a doorbell, after a few moments, she slid along the wall and to the hallway connecting the one she was currently in to the living room\greeting room.

To her surprise, Gaz was able to hear someone open the front door. There was some muffled talking that became clearer as she approached the living room but still sounded oddly muffled. Reaching the end of the hallway, she peered carefully around the corner, just in time to see her older brother get handcuffed and thrown into the back of the cop car. Nodding to herself, she waited, ducking back into the hallway when one of the men reproached the house, but her fears of being discovered were hollow as the door clicked closed.

Left alone, Gaz smiled to herself for but a moment before looking out the nearby window. Much to her disappointment, Dib did not fight back. He simply sat there, looking at the floor of the car with sadness lining his face, he looked so tired. She thought for a moment about why he wasn't doing anything. If one thing was a law in this universe, it was that her brother never went down without a fight. Why break the streak now?

When the car sped away, Gaz simply shrugged to the empty room. Dib had gotten himself in another mess, that was for sure. She walked quietly into the kitchen and looked at the fridge just before she noticed something wrong with the phone. Like an evil device bent on ruining her time home alone, the machine's message light was blinking ominously. Scowling she tapped the play button and listened to the static before the message.

"Hello daughter or son, this is Your Father!" Their dad began in an epic voice, typical of him, even this late at night. Gaz rolled her eyes as she thought of how vain he was.

"I wanted to let you know that I had an unexpected cancelation tonight and can be home long enough to push family night out a few months ahead in the schedule. I want you both to be ready outside the house later this morning! I will meet you there." The message ended and Gaz smiled to herself. A day with dad, no interruptions this time as Dib was… arrested…

The neutral look faded slowly and all the contentment and clarity vanished along with it as she remembered her father's wording; 'both'. One single emotion was not suppressed enough in that weak moment. Anger flooded Gaz's mind like water down a waterfall and rage took control. Family night out would not be ruined this year. With no aliens to stand in her way, she could easily retrieve her socially challenged brother and be home in time to meet their dad.

Once again, the little girl stormed out the front door, not even bothering to grab her coat as she had left it on from her walk. She slammed the front door shut and looked down the street in the direction the car had gone. Lightning flashed and with it, sleet began to fall, it was cold and wet causing Gaz's hair to fall down in front of her face, but that didn't matter. She could already tell where they were going. No one, not a single human on the planet, could stop her now.

* * *

Dib sat in the back of the cop car he was arrested in, listening to the freezing rain as it pounded on the top of the vehicle. His face was drawn down into the floor like it was playing afternoon television. He tried to think how this could have happened. How had he, a law abiding citizen, gotten arrested without even knowing what he had done? Surely this was a joke, a mistake of some sort? This just could not be happening right now of all times.

It was all just too much for him to take in. Zim returning and destroying half a city because of him, having to run away from home to hide, and now he was getting arrested for crimes he couldn't have committed. The information was far too colossal for his overworked and exhausted mind. There was simply nothing getting through to his head and he felt so confused, lost, so dead and guideless.

Courage and determination had been forsaken within Dib's mind and replaced with despair. All acts of rebelliousness were torn from his mind by the black empty void by this feeling of hopelessness with his situation. Why fight against fate anymore, even if he did get away from the police, what next? He couldn't hide forever, and Zim sure as hell wasn't going to let go of something like this.

Even if Dib were to win against this _one_ Irken, one day he would have to face the fact that somewhere out among the stars, there is not just one evil alien, but an entire _planet_ of them. How soon after this victory before more of the fiends come to earth in search of revenge? With his one small act of heroism may have doomed the earth quicker than if he had left them alone. The situation was hopeless and he was consumed by it. Closing his eyes and leaning back he accepted this fate.

So lost within thought and uncertainty was the human, that he did not notice when his computer link beeped and automatically put a message through. It was only when a voice filtered into his mind through his headphones that Dib's eyes shot open. It had started with static, then, as the signal was isolated, a familiar voice became clear.

"Dib human? Come on Dib say something." A shrill, somewhat mechanical voice commanded through the ear bud. Glancing up at the two officers who were safely hidden behind metal reinforced glass the boy answered with a slight whisper.

"Zim. What do you want? Called to gloat, is that it?" he asked in a harsh, but quiet tone. For the first time since being arrested, Dib began to wonder if Zim was behind his untimely arrest. While it would be unlike his arch nemesis to use humans for anything, he wasn't sure exactly what the Irken's were capable of anymore.

"It's nothing like that human. Give me a moment so I can hack her tracker." There were a few clicking noises on the other end of the line before Dib felt something move along his lower back. With the whirring of machinery, a small bug looking robot, no bigger than a baseball crawled up his back and came to rest on his shoulder.

Uncomfortably close as it was, Dib was able to see many details in the obviously Irken machinery. It was small, purplish black with a red lens in the center of the body with eight needle-like legs that curved slightly at the bottom. The entire thing was no bigger than a baseball and had what he assumed was Zim's insignia on the back. Despite its size, the human could only wonder as to how he had missed something like this when he was dressing. The machine looked around before turning back to him.

"You got captured by the human authorities?" Zim asked, obviously confused. Unwilling to give up on his way of life just yet, Dib contemplated this new turn of events. Why would the alien contact him now, what was the purpose when he was trapped in his enemy's web? The Irken sounded sincerely confused and, with past experiences, Zim could never fake anything, so perhaps this was a misunderstanding amongst humans? Deciding that his nemesis could still be behind this, Dib responded bitterly.

"It's not exactly like I had a choice about it. You should know that." Dib felt angry at the thought of Zim taunting him, playing ignorant as he waited to destroy him. The Irken's response was immediate and troubling.

"You dare accuse me of this treachery? When I come to offer help?" There was a pause on the other line as Dib's mind was baffled once more. It was becoming an annoying trend that made his head hurt. Wishing he could rub his temples to relieve the pain, the human spoke once again.

"You mean to tell me, that you had nothing to do with the robot, the empty city, the police? I find it hard to believe that you would just help me when you finally have me pinned." This was ridiculous and really starting to annoy Dib. He had gone through hell the past twelve hours and none of it was making any sense. Why could no one just give him any answers?

"You think that I am responsible for this? True I sent the maim-bot, but this is not under my control Dib. Let me help you, and I will explain whatever you want." Dib paused, answers to his problems did sound tempting. Then again, this was Zim, how could he trust him, who else would want him dead?

It was at this moment the car hit a bump, knocking the little robot on his shoulder off it's balance for a moment. This caused the little drone to trip foreword making it perform something like a small curtsy that reveled the insignia on its back. The triangular symbol of an Irken was familiar, but the curly antennas he had seen only once before. The large weenie stand his other enemy had built, a dangerous mastermind that he could scarcely believe he forgot about.

"Tak…" Dib whispered incredulously as the information was absorbed. The line went silent for a moment before a sigh resounded through the headphones.

"We are both in danger Dib. You cannot stop her alone… and neither can I, we are both trapped. Will you help me?" Thoughts swirled around Dib's head as he processed it all. A lot of pieces fell together, Tak betrayed Zim or vice versa and now they each were trying to kill him while fighting each other. The human had to pick a side as he was helpless without someone saving him. Or this could be some elaborate plot to kill him… despite the possibility; he had little to no choice.

Joining Tak would be a gamble, he had no idea if she would even consider his offer as she most likely would want to kill him. Zim on the other hand, was practically begging for help, and despite his past with the Irken, he needed someone else's help to get out of this. Forcing all thoughts out of his head, all conditions and biases aside, he knew that this was his only option. Through gritted teeth, with a pained voice, Dib responded.

"All right Zim. This one last time… I will help you." Those words hit Dib like a blow to the stomach. He was agreeing to his enemy's terms and no matter how much it hurt his pride, he was going to work with an alien. There was almost no doubt that Zim would betray him, so he had to be careful, but he would be ready to turn on his 'ally' at any moment to eliminate the element of surprise.

As he watched, the small little bug on his shoulder descended down his back and onto his arms. There was a small click and the handcuffs slid off. Holding his wrists behind his back to keep the illusion of a helpless child intact, Dib waited for Zim to make his next move. Right on schedule, the little robot made it's way to the side door, and began to cut a hole through the metal lining. Doing his best to cover it while looking inconspicuous, the human waited.

A small click and the door popped open just a crack, but the officer in the overcoat immediately noticed. He pulled back the glass divider and was reaching for his captive when something slammed into the car. Dib found himself thrown out the door into the harsh storm as it swung open from the force of impact. He hit the ground hard but his body was somewhat numb from the last few hours of little to no rest.

Watching from the ground in a daze, even through the rain, he saw the squad car slam into a parked gasoline tanker that exploded from the impact. A strong hand clamped around his shoulder and began to pull him away from it all. Looking back, he saw his sister, who was trying to drag him away while getting feeling back into her kicking leg. But before the boy could ask how she got involved in this, something shoved away a chuck of burning car from within the flaming wreckage.

Dib and Gaz watched as Officer Wilson rose out of the mini inferno, his overcoat somehow resisting the blaze as his goggles shielded his eyes. As he pulled out a large, black revolver, it clicked for Dib. He remembered his walk home from the hospital. The man's words echoed in his head like the dying ripples on a still pond; 'The name's Will or Wilson. Whichever you prefer.' He was able to recognize the cruel looking gun, even from this far away.

As Gaz saw her own reflection in the goggles, she remembered them from her little case through the blizzard. Like a flashback, sleet turned to snow and she was looking back, watching him chase her again. This was the man who had followed her, the man who went against the force of a snowstorm just to get to her. She hadn't noticed before because of the eyes, she hadn't seen them before. And now he had finally caught up to her.

The man's face was contorted in a smile that was so far out of place for the situation that it could only be described as insane. His movements were quick and jerky for a few moments, his arms twitching slightly as if someone were running a feather along his nerves. All in all, something was not right with this man.

"Where do you think you're going?" The officer shouted over the flames and onslaught of freezing rain. He twitched for a moment as he rubbed a scar along his neck and lowered the gun as if he didn't know why he had it out in the first place. That moment passed when Wilson lifted the goggles, revealing his cold and calculation eyes once again. Raising the gun, he pointed to Dib.

"Your coming with me!" The man shouted as he approached the two, Dib felt a chill go down his spine before feeling something crawl up his back until it rested between his shoulder blades. Wilson took a step closer and now stood only two yards ahead of them.

"She wants you, not your sister." He whispered almost remorsefully, angling the revolver down and reaching out with his spare hand. Zim's bug on Dib's back crouched, Gaz's muscles tensed and the soaked wind roared around them.

**Commercial break. This kind of a cliff hanger really annoys a lot of people. Sorry if you're angry but I need to keep this under three thousand words per chapter and the story alone is 2900 words long or so. Here is the part where I ask for opinions on the direction I have taken this story, next up is the part where most of you ignore my pleas for help and read the next story.**

**I hate sounding like a broken record but if you have a problem with the path I took this then please let me know. I want to consider the alternatives and see if I can fix it. Always remember that I am writing this for you guys and I want you to help me make it satisfactory for you. And frankly, I feel that a lot of these chapters have been under par or unrealistic, and yet no complaints or suggestions?**

**Ah well. If nothing else, tell me If you hated it or liked it. Three words that make a lot of difference.**


	15. Realizations

Noise was everywhere and nothing remained quiet during the storm. The wind howled in their ears, the thunder roared over their heads, the rain soaked them to their bones, and not one of the three within the chaos moved. Dib kneeled in a pool of water in front of his motionless sister, looking down the barrel of a very familiar black pistol. Oddly enough, despite all of the noise, the young boy did not hear any of it happening around him.

It may have been the car crash and the explosion that followed, the realization that he knew who this Wilson was, or the static on his earpiece from the disconnected communications between him and his new 'friend' but it all didn't matter. The only thing that Dib knew for sure was that he needed to stall for time. The rest was in his newly found ally's hands. Perhaps he could get his enemy talking, start a monologue? Always worked with Zim... so why not give it a shot?

"You don't have to do this you know." Dib stated bluntly, speaking in an even yet pleading tone. He wanted to know what had happened to this man to make him change sides from Human to Irken. The detective looked confused before slightly shaking his head, making sure never to let his eyes drift from the two small children in front of him.

"You broke the law, I have to bring you in." Wilson was confident in most of his words, but as he thought through the sentence, the words seemed be wrong somehow. Something nagged at the back of his mind, picking away at the statement. Despite each syllable coming from his own mouth, he felt sure that this was a lie. This boy had never broken the law… he only knew something. Why would he need to forcefully bring in a witness?

The answer slipped away from the Detective like a slippery bar of soap, but it was there. He could feel it being pulled away every time he tried to think about it. Unregistered and well hidden new additions to his mind took note of this and began precautions to make sure he remained ignorant. Despite these processes, Wilson tried his hardest before being broken from his thoughts by the little boy he was supposed to apprehend.

"Why follow Tak? You can choose to let us go." Dib really wanted to know now. This man had pressed him for answers, disappeared, and now reappeared, serving Tak. He was obviously human and had a conscience that told him right from wrong. What could helping an alien to destroy the world achieve? At the mention of the alien's name, the man's posture stiffened, he felt the urge to obey what his first goal was. This feeling was very persuasive but started to become oppressive when he was tempted to resist.

"N- No… you don't understand," Wilson's voice faltered for a moment as he shook his head, suddenly his tone shifted and his hand tightened on the gun. When he spoke again, his voice was joined with another, more mechanical one. The detective's thoughts were thrown from his head with a short buzz that shook his mind like a rattle, he was then entirely focused on the mission at hand.

"I can't!" The man's hand lunged foreword at an unnatural pace and ripped Dib from his sister's grasp, who simply let her arm drop to her side and clench into a fist. Gaz's scowl grew profoundly and became more intense as the idea of loosing Dib to some creep who had stalked her through a snowstorm became a sickening possibility. Planning ahead, she waited for the opportune moment to strike.

As the Detective's hand closed around his wrist, Dib heard something through all the wind and rain, dancing on the edge of his conciseness. It was high pitched and bending in volume so to speak but defiantly growing louder. The noise had started far on the edge his conciseness but eventually drew the attention of both Gaz and the detective. His sister returned to looking for a weak point in Wilson, but the man was no longer paying attention to her.

Confused, Dib's capturer looked around nervously for the source of the annoyance. He wasn't sure exactly what it was; only that it did not signify good outcomes of his current task. True to this prediction, he spotted something in the distance, it was small, green and black speeding in front of a large cloud of disturbed dust left from the previous day of mass inactivity. What alarmed him was the fact that it was speeding towards him.

Gir's squeal was loud enough to crack Dib's glasses exactly before the little dog slammed into Wilson. What occurred next happened in rapid succession. Wilson dropped his captive as Gir tried to eat his hands, and while Dib was in mid fall, the spider drone on his back lunged at the Detective and began to claw at his face. Finally, Gaz kicked the man's leg, earning a satisfying snap that caused all three, human and machines, to topple forward.

Dib, who was already on the ground, was able to see the Detective's broken leg as he thrashed around in a vain attempt to get rid of the screaming bot, throwing water and mud up into the air with his struggles. Beneath the flesh and muscle, there was a red black pole covered in small bumps that were currently glowing purplish pink. There were several small tubes that circled around the 'bone' leading up into his leg. The pole was bent and broken and the tubes leaked a glowing purple substance onto the ground.

A fist gripped the back of his jacket and began to drag him away. Looking up, Dib was able to see Gaz as she scowled disdainfully at her brother, hair hanging in her face and dripping a constant stream of water on his newly cracked glasses. She glared at him the way one would look at a stain they had found on their shirt after a business meeting. She muttered under her breath about him being too lazy to stand and walk on his own. Dib ignored her derogatory comments and propped himself up on his own two feet in a sign of self reliance and defiance.

Gaz began to make her way down a nearby alleyway as to escape the clutches of the Detective. Even if he was currently distracted, she knew when someone wasn't about to give up chase. Dib, not wanting to be around when the struggle ended, followed her brisk pace. Behind them, the shouts and insane laughter stopped after a few gunshots could be heard.

As they ran from the still burning car, Dib looked back to see that happened. Wilson managed to grip Gir's head at that moment and throw him away before crushing Zim's spy bug in his hand. The little dog activated his jets in mid fall and launched past his victim to the two fleeing children as the broken machinery in Wilson's hands dropped to the soaked ground.

Rolling to his back in order to get a breath, the detective offered the boy another nice view of his wounds. This time it was a long gouge taken out of his head by Zim's spider bot. It ran from the corner of his mouth past his eye, down the back of his head and was a good one inch wide. Any normal person would be out of their mind with pain at the moment.

However, the flesh damage wasn't concerning Dib, what scared him the most, was the blackish red metal that glowed purple in certain lines running back into his hair line and back beneath the skin. This metal had previously been hidden behind skin and muscle but now was simply shielded by a thin layer of blood. Gaz yanked Dib around a corner, tearing his gaze from the hideous abomination created by what could only be Tak.

* * *

No longer under attack, the previously human detective glanced around from his prone position, noticing too late that they had left him. Looking down at his broken foot in surprise instead of horror or pain, the man propped himself up using a pile of rubble. He tried and failed several times to get up, falling each time because of his leg. After the last try, he slumped to the ground and dragged himself into a dark corner to wait for the metal to mend itself. Then he would go after them, and next time, he would not underestimate children.

* * *

Zim floated within a tank full of a semi-clear pink paste. Several tubes had attached themselves to him in various places but the most evident pipe connected around his mouth. He could feel it draining his lungs and introducing a much more powerful variant of his medication to eradicate the virus filling his atmosphere processors with fluid. The Irken's Pak was open and being tended to by an advanced modification unit to fix the filter's problem and modify them to keep him breathing outside of the intensive care unit.

On the inside of the glass tube, screens danced in front of Zim's calculating eyes. He watched from Gir's live feed as the little robot attacked the detective and allowed the Dib to escape. Using his right hand's index finger to move that screen to the side, the Irken opened up a new one. This window displayed Dib's primitive camera feed from his rudimentary 'spy' suit. If he had air to scoff with, the alien would have done so.

With the current situation, however, there was little to nothing to sneeze at. Tak had a new pawn in the game and had been too close to capturing Dib. And while offering a truce with the human was somewhat of a 'cheap shot' his former partner had been the first to resort to trickery and dishonesty. He was merely adapting to a new change in the playing field that had been forced upon him. Zim reached up to the screen when his hand stopped, he could feel a throbbing pressure on his chest, not because of the infection, but at the thought of Tak.

Though he would never admit it, Zim felt somewhat hurt that Tak wouldn't play fair in the game of revenge. While in the Irken rules of war it was claimed that "all is fair on the battlefield" her treachery and even willingness to kill him was somewhat painful. She couldn't have known that he wasn't in that Maim-bot, they were designed to be manually operated from within to prevent signal hacks. He could have been inside of that machine and yet she blew it up anyway. That hurt not only his ego but something deep within his Squeedly Spooch. Tossing these disgusting feelings aside, Zim returned to the task ahead.

Zim watched the Dib round a corner and stop for a breather with his sister. Tapping a small circle on the screen in front of him, a signal was sent to the human through his emergency communicators. The static flittered through the gel surrounding him as if it weren't even there and soon cleared. Cracking his neck, he prepared to establish the plan's premise.

"Dib worm?" Zim asked, or rather ordered, to his new henchman. The feed from Dib's suit twitched as he was startled by the abruptness of the Irken's call. Once it settled down the line cracked with activity along with the child's words.

"Yeah? What?" The human replied quite rudely. The alien's blood boiled at the thought of Dib being resistant at a time such as this. He needed the boy for now, and therefore needed to be trusted. There is no way this would work if they both were looking over their shoulder the entire time, expecting a knife between the shoulder blades so to speak.

"Look Dib," Zim started passively, trying to calm the human down before solidifying their truce.

"We need to work together to win this. Help me now and we all live." There was a deafening silence on the other line as Dib thought about this.

"All right. What do you need us to do?" Dib seemed to accept this a little too swiftly for Zim's comfort but he had to take what he could in situations like this. The Irken never expected to be able to completely trust the human, confidence that he would follow a few orders was above what he had originally hoped. While the submissiveness was far from relieving it did help move things along for now.

"Make your way to my house, Gir will let you in and I'll get us to her base."Gir landed next to Gaz and Dib before he saluted the camera lens on the human's suit with a flash of red in his eyes. Another pause, The Dib certainly was hesitant to follow him anywhere, let alone to his base. This was a concern he was not hesitant to voice.

"And once we get to your base Zim? What happens then? We get captured and bargained for your own freedom? Is that it?" Dib's voice lowered into a distrustful growl that grated on the Irken's nerves. With a clenched jaw and gritted teeth, he responded as calmly and carefully as he possibly could at the moment. Despite how reserved he kept himself, his words still managing to sound somewhat hostile and foreboding.

"I cannot ensure anything for you Dib. I can simply offer you what I already have; a chance at continuing your wretched life. If you have something better to do, by all means, go ahead." When he was done appealing to the human in a tone usually reserved for threatening, the Dib simply started to make his way down the alley. Zim smiled to himself when his sensors indicated that he was heading in the direction of his base.

Closing the communication's link, Zim tapped a button on the side of the tube he currently resided. With a loud beep, the gel began to drain from around him, every particle pulling away from his body, leaving him absolutely dry. The wires then detached from his body and slithered back into their little holes. His PAK was quickly reassembled during the process and reattached with their improved breathing apparatuses that he immediately felt with his first breath of stale, recycled oxygen.

Once gravity was applied to his body again, the Irken rested at the bottom of the tube, supported only by his hands and knees. Zim continued to breath calmly, all too aware of the tickling feeling in the back of his throat. Ignoring it for the moment he pressed his hands to the sides of the glass and pulled himself upward to an unsteady standing position. That task completed, he stumbled foreword, back into the base.

First Zim injected himself with another dose of medication to eradicate that annoying raw feeling plaguing his throat, next he slipped on a brand new uniform with its comforting pink and black colors, a glove slid onto his intact hand and boots put on comfortably. Dressed and re-orientated with the base's artificial gravity, the Irken approached the pried open medical doors. Looking down, he was able to see the depths of his base. Tak's base now.

Zim extended two PAK legs on either side of himself, forming a spherical force field around his body to dampen the fall. Preparing himself for only a moment, he jumped. The air rushed past and around him along with a sickening weightless feeling. Resisting the urge to scream, the Irken plummeted. Halfway through the fall his other two PAK legs extended and began to force themselves into the wall, this drastically slowed his decent into the core, but still he was going too fast.

Sparks shot around him, burning exposed skin and warming his face, accompanying the sparks was the shrieking sound of metal grinding against metal. Looking down, Zim was able to see the bottom; it was coming too fast to meet him so he added his artificial hand to his PAK legs in an attempt to slow down. The exit was coming fast, sweat beaded on Zim's face from concentration and from the heat of the force field. All of the sudden, the walls around him disappeared and were replaced by open space.

Zim closed his eyes and waited. The force field around him slammed into the ground with an earsplitting, antenna grating bang that reverberated around the room. The force caused the field do dissipate immediately leaving the Irken exposed to whatever lay in the room. For a moment, he simply crouched there in a small circle of light, the only light in the room, originating from the tunnel above.

But as Zim stood up, the sensors in the floor registered that he needed light and that there was an intruder. At the other end of the room, a large circle of red light grew on the fusion core, casting devious looking shadows behind and around him. Two large screens on either side of the enormous core flickered to life as well, in a moment they displayed Tak, frowning down at him with each of her claws pressed together in front of her.

"So you're trying to get to your reactor. And what are you planning on doing with it?" Tak asked, her voice echoing around the empty room as she tapped a few buttons on her keyboard. Zim couldn't help but notice how much of a mess she looked. Her hands needed to have their bandages replaced, her uniform was rumpled and dirty, sleep deprivation was all too evident in her face and her antenna's were somewhat bent. The Tak he knew would never let herself drop this far from the dress code.

Not answering her question, he sauntered down the aisle, eyeing the turrets that lined the walls. Each was alive and followed his every move, but didn't fire. The needed their mistress's orders to do that. Tak squinted at him, as if her eyes had trouble seeing him, or her eyes were too tired to focus properly. Wondering briefly why she didn't just activate them, curiosity or hesitation? Feeling the need to test which it was Zim plotted his next move.

"Whatever it is, I won't let you have it." Tak threatened once she realized that he was not planning on responding. She glared down at him, holding her finger above the shoot to kill firing sequence for all of the turrets. He would die, she would win. Stopping in the center of the room, Zim held his arms out at his side and looked her in the eyes. The words he responded with were a complete gamble that he had no idea would work. Call it a hunch but he felt pretty confident.

"Do it." Tak's eyes widened as she looked down at him, not fully comprehending what he had said. She looked from her hand back to her former partner, in shock. Then shock transmitted into anger, she gritted her teeth and glared before glancing back at the button just below her index claw. Seeing the option appeared to frighten her, one slip-up and he was gone… so why didn't she just do it. Indecisiveness took over her mind as she stuttered for an answer.

Zim did not move as she debated, simply standing there in the open, waiting for her to make the decision. Her reaction was puzzling, they were enemies now right? Tak had told him this herself, seemed elated and ready to kill him. Now, one little muscle jerk and she would killed him with his own base's defenses. And yet, she hesitated. The female's hand clenched into a fist before she glared back at him, with a roar of anger and desperation she destroyed the transmitter to the screens.

Immediately afterwards, the turrets deactivated and retracted into the wall. Row by row the fell around him, and yet his eyes remained on the static that replaced Tak on the screen. Something had just happened, something far from just his teacher backing down, but he had no idea what. The core powered down in front of him, casting the entire base into blackness and then an eerie red glow originating from the base's emergency power.

Left opened mouthed, Zim stared before setting such feelings and realizations aside. Replacing the deep thoughts was the mission. Working fast, he started the long climb up to the hangar bay. The cruiser needed to get tuned up before the Dib got here. As he ascended Zim wondered briefly about what he would have done if Tak and his places had been switched. Could he have activated the turrets, ordering them to kill her in cold blood? The answer eluded him the entire way.

**Guys I apologize. I debated for a long time today about whether or not to say I'm sorry. I thought it might seem a bit too pompous; as if you guys really care if I update right? Well better safe than sorry. Its late because of my upcomming inspection, for those of you who didn't get my profile message. Sorry once again but from time to time work gets in the way.**

**Here, I tried to give doubt to Zim, explain a bit of what happened to Wilson and have Dib escape. It took me a while to settle on the way this should go and this is my 'best' outcome so far. I hope it's good enough for you guys but if not, tell me and ill rewrite it in a more preferable way. I need those who care to look for mistakes please. Review if you want, I give up trying to ask for opinions.**


	16. The Burning City

Tak remained in her tense position, panting and angry. Her fist lingering inside the monitor she had destroyed to keep herself from seeing Zim any longer. Her other hand clutched at the cool metal on the dashboard in fury that was unable to be expended any other way. She simply stood there for a moment tense and angry, it was only when the adrenalin began to recede from her limbs and mind that she noticed the sparking monitor as it began to singe her hand.

Retracting her fist quickly and putting out the fire that had started on her bandages with a few pats from her claw and everything was fine again. Now simply standing, she felt the anger draw back along with the heat from the monitor and the adrenalin, as if the three were somehow connected. Tossing that thought from her head, Tak slumped down in the chair behind her and rubbed her temples with her still stinging hands.

Obviously Tak had a problem. She could not kill him, no matter how much she had wanted to he was still breathing, living. And if she couldn't kill him, he would undoubtedly take advantage of that, she had taught him as much. There had to be a solution to this, some way to stop him. Absentmindedly she tapped away at the keyboard, a few random words and names that had little significance. Reading through her list, one line of code stood out amongst all the others.

It was at that moment Tak grinned, she couldn't kill him, that didn't mean that they couldn't. The bits of code had reminded her of that little project she had going. With a grimace of triumph and loss she typed in the activation commands for her hidden army. Sending them after one particular human. The Dib would be the bait, Zim wouldn't be able to resist the temptation. Shaking herself of the annoying guilty feeling that currently plagued her she reassured herself that it was for the greater Irk.

With that comfort in mind Tak got to her weak legs and made her way out of the small communications room and into the large dome like control chamber that made up the larger part of the station. Lining the walls were rows and rows of monitors, levers, buttons, wires, pipes and so many other bits and bobs that made the room seem crowded despite its enormous size and complete lack of inhabitants aside from the one small Irken.

Sighing in contempt at the room's emptiness, Tak made her way to the center of the platform in the lower hub of the room. Once there, she allowed the base to deploy a small floating screen to her side. Typing several commands on it she then waited for the workbenches to extend in front of her. As always the floor parted and a long thin table that curved back to a point on each side rose from the depths of the station's storage. Tak remarked to herself about how it looked like a crescent moon.

Once fully extended she placed both her claws against the cool metal surface and watched as it rippled like disturbed water. The miniature waves bounced away from the edges seemingly at random patterns before flowing back to her hands and solidifying between them in the form of Tak's personalized Irken emblem. This let her know that her claw prints matched. Tak did not pay attention to this, she was lost in a memory of the beach invoked by the small waves on the dashboard.

A light beep resounded somewhere overhead before her new A.I. addressed its exhausted commander.

"Scanning PAK I.D… Confirmed. Welcome back Mistress Tak. Awaiting commands."The neutral female voice said as three screens descended overhead. They angled slightly towards her to offer a more convenient view. Three lines dragged across the middle screen before the A.I. spoke again in its disgustingly even tone.

"Mistress?" The machine asked carefully, simulating concern for her benefit. Tak shifted her weight and slumped into the chair behind her. Resting her weak head upon a bandaged claw that was too tired to be clenched into a fist. The Irken ignored the machine's second question, same as the first, her mind simply stopped working and refused to focus on the subjects at hand in turn for mundane things like recharging and relaxation. She had intended to prepare for when Zim arrives but now she was occupied with other things.

Tak's mind wandered farther and farther away from the room, eventually it reached a small daydream of not so long ago. She found herself sitting on a very familiar pink couch while watching mindless cartoons. The Irken sat with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap in a weird meditative pose eyes closed and mind cleared. Zim sat next to her, mouth open and eyes glazed as he had given up on the meditative lesson long ago. On the Floor, obnoxiously close to the TV, sat Gir in his dog outfit. Again she felt that warm feeling in her chest… it felt so- good.

Tak's eyes shot open in blinding pain, it felt as if someone had attached her PAK to the power core of the Massive. Nothing new went through her mind and it seemed to go on forever. For as long as she could through the ordeal, Tak did her best to hold on to that last thought. If felt as if it had some deep and revealing meaning. Eventually it became too much for her and it slipped from her minds grasp like a lifeline lost in the middle of a storm. Air rushed back into her lungs, she had been in so much pain, she couldn't even hear her own scream.

Once the thoughts were gone, the pain stopped. Tak was on the floor panting for several minuets, listening to the muffled noises coming from somewhere above. After such agony, she had no idea how to proceed. One does not simply get up after something like that. Deciding not to start at all, Tak simply lay there, listening to the base rant about her current position on the floor, productiveness, and the incomplete plans overhead. Eventually, one update the machine mentioned grabbed her waning attention.

"You just experienced another forceful thought reprimand for breaching emotional suppressors. Would you like to increase shock potency?" At long last it paused. Tak had been wondering for some time what these shocks were, never having experienced them before they were something of a mystery. Mustering her will and fighting to remain conscious after the harsh 'reprimand' Tak spoke to the artificial intelligence.

"Could you disable these…" Tak was in the middle of getting up when her stomach weakened on her. Once done vomiting onto the floor, she sat back against the base of her chair. The machine registered her weak state but did not do anything but wait for her to finish the inquiry. Once done retching, she continued.

"Could this process be disabled?" Tak asked in a hoarse voice. There was a slight humming sound around her, the base was searching it's records. Normally this would only last for a few seconds but it seemed that it lasted much longer on this occasion. At last the whirring died down and was replaced by the droning voice.

"It is possible, but to do so is highly illegal and will result in immediate banishment from the empire and possible execution-" Tak waved her hand around in the air, disrupting the machine.

"Yeah… just do it. Anything to stop the pain…" Tak grunted out with delusional thoughts that had managed to pierce through the lingering agony as she tried desperately to get back up into her command chair and send down a medical convoy to pick her up. The base anticipated her needs and in no time at all, a small white platform floated down and loaded her on to its clean white back before transporting it's master to the medical bay.

* * *

Dib crept through alleyway after alleyway of the deserted city with his silent sister and a madly giggling Gir. The clouds above had lessened their onslaught during the walk and eventually the rain stopped, but now a new type of weather took it's place. From the still blackened sky, dying embers along with ash flittered down slowly like hellish snow, burning exposed skin and setting tiny fires on trash that had somehow escaped the rain. As the wind died down, the ash began to gather in small piles, covering everything.

This new factor in their already chaotic day did nothing to lighten moods of the small children. In fact, the only difference it made was to brighten their path, and cast flickering lights with shadows that made for a disorientating contrast. The air grew warmer as they progressed, the ash grew thicker and had already gathered in large piles slowing progress. As time passed, smoke joined the ash in the air, forcing the two children to cover their mouths and noses with the front of their shirts just to breath, it was annoying but not unbearable.

Gir stuck his metallic tongue out and caught several of the falling embers and bits of burned wood upon it as if ash were indeed snow. Upon swallowing them the little robot let loose a series of racking coughs that alarmed his two companions in two different ways. Gaz was concerned about their position being given away while Dib only came to this conclusion after he worried about the machine chocking. This died down after his sister glared at Gir, earning only an innocent smile that worsened her attitude.

They came upon a large pile of trash and rubble that blocked the ally, smoke and heat stronger than ever before, Gaz began to climb, followed quickly by her brother and the robot. During their climb through ash and smoke that burned their eyes and made their breath catch in their throats Dib could not help but wonder where all the telltale signs of a fire were coming from. Soon after this question entered his mind it was answered by the sight of the city's downtown area. Or so it had been.

Through irritated, watery eyes Dib saw what could have been described as a hellish landscape. The part of town he had been strolling through not twelve hours ago, had been set aflame. From where they stood he was able to make out a large melted mass of metal that burned a strange red too bold to be natural for fire. He immediately remembered Zim's robot, now destroyed by who he assumed was Tak. Wondering briefly how the Irken had managed to escape this, he returned to scanning the path ahead of them.

As he looked his vision began to clear, Dib was able to make out shapes as they moved around in the flaming wreckage, there were people. They were lurching around as if they had been hurt or were in pain but they were indeed people. He was about call down to them, ask if they were all right when his sister's hand closed over his mouth. Panicking for a moment he looked into her eyes as she shook her head and placed a single finger over her lips in a gesture of silence. Motioning for him to follow her they descended the steep pile of rubble.

Gir, of course, followed them. Oddly silent, the robot made his way down the large pile of crushed bricks. Looking back at him, Dib noticed how the grimly flickering lights reflected off of the robot made him look far more intimidating. At this particular time at least, Gir seemed to reflect what his creators were. Dib was so lost in thought that he slipped and fell the last few feet landing behind a shredded trashcan with a startled yell.

"What was that?" Gaz froze, Dib froze, Gir hopped into a dumpster. Gaz watched as someone stumbled over to where they hear the noise. Stopping on the opposite side of the trashcan, their breathing was even but unnaturally loud all the same.

"I know I heard something…" The person whispered to themselves on the other side. Gaz, crouched right in front of him was able to see that he was a male in about his mid thirties, wearing a ragged business suit. It seems as if his hands were burned for whatever reason, though he showed no signs of pain or general discomfort. HE lingered for a moment or two, waiting before shaking his head and turning around.

"Must be hearing sounds again…" The man whispered to himself, confused as he really had heard something. As he turned around and walked away, the two children observed a small spider looking device, crouched on the back of his neck. The machinery was obviously Irken. Gaz glanced down at her brother, who had gotten up and was now peering at the man in wonder, he had seen it as well.

It would make sense, Dib thought to himself. Why would Tak take the time to create a hundred people like Wilson when she could just control an entire population with simpler means. He only wondered what else she had given them… It seems that Gaz was unwilling to wait to find out, she silently darted from trash pile to trash pile, carrying Gir by his neck and holding his mouth closed to prevent him from ruining anything. Dib followed close behind.

Finally they reached to other side of Downtown; Zim's base was just on the other side of a few alley ways. Gaz released Gir who immediately shouted "waffles" and dove into a nearby trashcan. Without another word they continued their stealthy walk. Halfway down the way, something metal scraped against metal, setting all of their teeth on edge. Looking back the way that had come, three small cats looked them in the eyes innocently.

Dib sighed, relieved that it was not another one of Tak's goons. Gaz didn't seem to trust them at all, glaring down at the kittens like they were evil little monsters. Turning back around to leave, he and his sister came face to face with a very familiar black cat with red eyes. Gir hopped back out of the trashcan with a squeal.

"Mimi! I missed you so m-" Gir was jolted by Mimi's retractable claw that now clutched his head. The cat shifted back into the form of a Sir unit in a matter of seconds before charging away, Gir in tow. Gaz made immediate chase followed by two of the cats behind them. Then it was just Dib. He turned slowly to face the last feline in the ally. A small grey furred thing, it meowed softly, tempting him to approach. Old habits die hard and as such, he began to back up, earning a warning hiss.

A few more steps and the thing's skin seemed to shift. Breaking apart, the hologram fell and was replaced by another Sir unit. Dib immediately ran, having no hope against such a machine, he needed to get away. Rounding the corner he dove between two trashcans and a dumpster. Holding his mouth shut and steadying his breathing. A hiss somewhere behind him, it was searching. Panicking and on the brink of desperation, Dib grabbed a thick slightly rusted pipe from the floor and wielded it like a club.

The hissing got louder to his left, grating on his nerves, terrifying him, Dib was just able to see the machinery around the corner when, closing his eyes, he swung the pipe. It connected with metal but he didn't stop, swinging his makeshift club, beating the machine back and forth back and forth until he couldn't any more.

Dib dropped the pipe and leaned against the dumpster, panting. Opening his eyes Dib saw what he had done, the small machine's head had been split open in the first swing, and the rest broke it in half and crushed the rest of the body. The limbs twitched as he watched… felling like he had lost something… important.

Gaz sauntered down the alley carrying Gir and Mimi's broken claw which still clutched at her previous victims head. It seemed the rest of her got away. Grabbing Dib the left the ally. After what seemed like no time at all, he found himself walking down the familiar road to Zim's house. The green walls soon towered over him and the red windows seemed to gleam brighter than ever before. They had finally made it.

**This chapter needed to get out of the way. All those people missing when Zim first stroke… I needed an explanation, who better than Tak? While it wasn't exactly my plan from the start, it fit nicely to the overall ploy. Remember, Tak will not become overly emotional without the warning shocks, the suppressors would still apply but she will be able to think about such things and figure out what they mean without consequences… Felt the need to explain a few things you probably already know.**

**Review if possible, this chapter was basically filler but still need to be cleaned up. Oh and if any of you can guess what Dib lost when he killed the robot you get one wish. evilshope... not familiar with that name. You literally have NO records... Well despite that you get a wish. Whatever I can provide (within reason)**


	17. Just Like the Old Days

Zim worked quietly but quickly in the hanger of his base. A large, spherical room with a platform in the very center, on which his voot cruiser rested, and a ring platform along the walls surrounding the cruiser. The outermost platform contained workbenches, tools, replacement parts and many other devices he was using. His ship had been sabotaged remotely, typical Tak, and would now require a brand new engine as the current engine's repair processes would take far too long for the current task.

Zim scowled as he glanced back at the cruiser, the engine now had to be manually replaced. He wondered with quite dissatisfied thoughts, why he did not disable his bases core after he had repaired the ship. Such thoughts were wasted as he now had no control over any of the bases functions, all systems that had not been shut down by Tak were currently preoccupied with maintaining the core. It would risk overheating the power and leveling the remaining city if he used one of the terminals to redirect power. So, he worked manually, trying to keep his mind from wandering to his plot.

His plan unsettled Zim. He had no idea where Tak's base was, she could be anywhere. Knowing her, it could be in a different city, or on the Earth's moon even. All he had to go on was Tak's old weenie stand and her mansion just outside of town. But those seemed too easy and obvious, openings for traps and ambushes, disasters just waiting to happen… But what else could he do? He had to do something, anything, even if it accomplished nothing.

Zim's right hand brushed up against one of the tools, inwardly, he winced in pain before quickly pulling it back. Already a small trail of blood began to seep from the wound. Since removing the cast from his previously crushed hand, he had noticed that the skin had not fully developed and was as weak as a newly hatched smeet's, if not more so. His gloves irritated the sensitive skin and sometimes created wounds of their own. It would take another day or so until he could make full use of it, but he was glad that his normal hand was back. A relief he did not voice to himself as normal.

Regardless of an angry mutter here or the clicking and clacking of tools, the room was mostly silent. Gir out of the house and helping the Dib thing get to his base, Zim was left to his unsettled thoughts. No matter how normal he tried to act, he could not help his mind from wandering back to Tak, what had happened before, and what might eventually happen.

What he was going to do if and when they came face to face. Something was twisting around in his squeedly spooch every time he thought about ending their little conflict and, by extension, killing her. This did not sit well with him. Not only that, Tak had refused to kill him, she had him dead in the center of the core room, surrounded by turrets, waiting for the command, and she deactivated the base. This was not at all like Tak… Her own words reverberated around his head "always press the advantage" Very dissimilar to her own actions not an hour ago.

A loud bang interrupted his thoughts, something metal against metal, Zim was no longer alone. Remaining motionless, he was about to call out to his base before cursing within the confines of his mind; there would be no assistance today. A scraping noise grated somewhere below the platform that set his teeth on edge. Zim looked at the workbench before him, his eyes shifting through each tool to find the best he could use for protection against this unwelcomed intruder. Finding an acceptable piece of equipment, he slowly reached for a sharply pointed mace-like apparatus, which he held defensively.

A click behind him, followed by another, they gradually grew closer until he felt that enough distance had been covered. Throwing his weight and putting as much force as he could behind the blow, Zim swung the tool backwards… to be met by nothing. Stumbling for a second to regain his balance, he recovered quickly and looked around in surprise. There was nothing there but him. Shrugging it off and dismissing the matter as nervousness, Zim turned back to his workbench, to come face to face with Tak's Sir Unit.

The machine offered him no time to react, and with it's one arm, shoved him to the ground and pounced. A cable extended from Mimi's head before Zim even hit the ground and lunged at his PAK. Anticipating this, he twisted it the air in an attempt to avoid it, but it was futile. She was going to destroy his PAK and end it just like that. However, just before it plunged through him, the cable connected to his back and both beings froze.

Images flashed in front of Zim's mind. A blur of light, color, and meaning tore through his brain, accompanied by echoing voices. He saw places that he had never been to and some he had, such as his base, Tak's weenie stand, and the school. He heard voices and tones that he never even experienced for himself and a few he was familiar with, there was Dib's fearful yell, a growl of pure anger and determination from some unknown female, and Tak's harshly commanding tone.

For a few moments Zim was able to see a large fully built observation station, obviously Irkan in design, it was floating somewhere in space with a moon behind it. A flash and he felt that he was inside of it, looking at a keypad. Someone stepped into view. They wore a modified invader uniform with purple and blue-black colors, whoever they were, they typed in the code. Translated into human scrawl, it would be 9319139. Perhaps it was the year something happened that was important to the programmer? He felt a shift in his thought process and came to the conclusion that it was the override code to the main control room's door.

Zim's vision shifted again, he was watching as something was being built within the depths of an Irkan base. It seemed to be the station from his last vision, only it had to be before the last vision as the outer hull had not yet been completed, but not too long beforehand because it seemed that it would have been finished within a few days. Zim's brief thoughts were interrupted by a demanding voice that called out a name he would not normally answer to.

"Mimi! Report." Tak called out as she descended on a floating platform. Zim watched from the sir unit's eyes as it saluted and made a few hand gestures to signify that the platform was nearing completion. Tak nodded, obviously satisfied with the pace of the ship's production.

"I'm going to begin working on the plans for our friend Dib, I need you to finish the minor details of the base." Tak turned as if to walk away, but stopped as she remembered something important.

"Be sure to add anything we might need, fallback measures and so on." She finished quickly, and with a swish of her cape, Tak marched quickly away. Mimi saluted to her back and approached a nearby terminal, beginning production for escape pods and an emergency lift in the main command chamber. The memory blurred and was accompanied by more shadows of voices and noises.

Codes and names dashed in front of his mind, some clearer than others. A few stuck out to him and he tried to memorize them. Eventually the codes disappeared and were replaced by two flashing words, written in standard Irken, they translated into something he had not been expecting and confused him, but as suddenly as the visions were upon him, they were gone.

Zim crashed to the floor with Mimi's immobile body, the entire thing had taken but a split second. He shoved the broken machine off of his torso and tore the cable from his PAK. He was not afraid of Mimi anymore, his PAK had fried her power, but he was confused and afraid of what she had just done to him. She could have planted a virus or false information into his head. Falsified memories used to confuse him. But as the visions faded into a distant memory like fog in the morning sunlight, he knew these fears were hollow.

For among all the bits of code and the fragments of memory, two words lingered longer than the rest. Two words Tak would never, under any circumstances, have sent out on her own. "Help Her" with a recording of Tak on the ground, writhing in pain, bounced around Zim's head as he hid the Sir unit and returned to work, even more troubled and confused than before. Until he heard something downstairs.

* * *

The door slowly creaked open, stopping only when it hit the wall to its side. Dib slowly peaked in from around the corner. The entire room was bathed in a bright red light, giving it a hellish nightmare look. He observed the room for a few more seconds from the doorway, noticing the thick layer of dust coating everything. It looked as if no one had been here in months. His eyes lingered upon a small coffee table covered in various tea kettles and cups, now broken, and a pink pig, all looked and smelled as if they had been set aflame recently. There were small, charred pieces of paper with writing on them.

"Piggie and me made crackers!" Gir commented as he trotted in, Dib picked up a small bit of paper, half of the name was burned off but he was able to make out 'Fire C'. As the robot walked, his disguised doggy feet squeaking with every step, leaving small dots where his suit collected the dust. Dib winced with every noise; he felt like he was trespassing somewhere he really should not be. Gaz entered next, showing her brother into the house to get him out of the way. He stumbled ever so slightly before clenching his hands into fists and glaring at his sister.

Gaz, who was closing the door, felt his glare and something else, something she had not felt from Dib in a long time. Turning to look at him, she saw something in his eyes, true anger and determination, a deadly combination that would have invoked a small pang of fear to anyone untrained in ignoring and suppressing such emotions. She simply shrugged it off, though it was somewhat alarming that he seemed different from the helpless child she knew so well.

Swallowing his pride and regaining control over his stress and anger, Dib looked around once again in search of Zim. He felt nervous, this was the first time he had actually been officially invited and let in to the base. While under normal circumstances he would be cataloging, taking pictures or trying to destroy everything, this time, he simply sat there, wondering what the next step would be. It was an odd feeling be uh did not have much time to ponder it.

A shadow was thrown across the room, dark and consuming. It's path seemed to seep across the floor towards him, a trail of darkness ready to consume him, but one blink and the trick of the light was thwarted. Dib followed the shadows tail before finding it's owner.

Zim stood in the adjacent doorway head slightly downcast and hands at his side. The lighting made it hard to see his face, but his red eyes seemed to glow malevolently. The Irken started forward, calmly, nonthreatening, and yet somewhat distracted. As he looked from Dib to his sister, there was a troubled twitch that made him look more past them rather than holding their direct gaze. He stopped about five feet from Dib and held his hands behind his back in a dignified pose.

They stood like that for what seemed to be another eternity, glaring at the other and working hard to gain control in their silent battle. All until Zim, holding an even gaze addressed the two.

"The hangars this way." Motioning to the doorway he had first appeared, Zim set off with a brisk marching pace. Gaz shrugged and followed along with Gir. Leaving Dib alone in the living room. Just like old times, he thought bitterly before trudging after the trio.

**I left a message here some time ago concerning "The Christmas Incident" as my coworkers have started calling it. A long gone memory as I am now far far away from Florida... that accursed hell, safe and sound back in good old New York New York! I'm sure if I weren't writing this authors message months after this was posted then I would have some interesting questions about what you thought or how you should review... I no longer care. I appreciate readers and anything more is just an added bonus.**


	18. Repairs and Blackouts

Detective Wilson stared off into the nothingness in front of him. The rain had died down, the fire had run its course, the voices had stopped for the time being, and he simply sat there, empty-minded. His prosthetic bones were just finishing up the process of repair and he was without orders, no one wanted him, nothing needed him, at least for the time being. And yet, he did not feel remorse, he did not feel anything. Through a moment of clarity, he began to think about the current situation, what led to it, and where it would take him.

It lasted for a full thirty milliseconds before his mind became scattered. Thoughts were shredded right before him like a report into tiny bits of paper. He clung desperately to a few scraps of his thoughts, but they were broken and disjointed, Impossible to make any sense of. One was but a question; What have I become? A question from what, he could not remember, it could have simply been something that he had read. Despite rationalizing it, something nagged at him about that question, a part of him fought to realize that it applied to him.

The transition from thinking human into mindless drone had not been a smooth transition, and indeed Wilson was still resisting the change. He knew deep down that something was wrong with him and it was this sense that made him work hard to think, pulling a gun on a child? For an investigation? For anything? How could he have become so obsessed? Wilson reran the memory through his head, forgetting his fragmented question entirely.

The images that shifted though his mind were all intact, none made any sense, but he just wanted to remember something, anything he could. In his mind, Wilson watched the boy as he started to say that he didn't have to work for her… work for who? The chief was a he, surely a criminal would know that. He reviewed the memory again, the child had asked a question… His memory faltered, a fierce opposition met his mind, Wilson forced his brain to oppose this.

"Why follow Tak?" The boy's voice echoed through his head, followed by an explosion of memories. His investigation, his evidence, the break in, his capture… and Tak, all flooded back to him. If Wilson still had blood in his veins, it would have run cold. He was being manipulated. Working against whatever it was in his head, he pushed the facts to the front of his mind, placing them together like tiny puzzle pieces, it all started to slide together.

The boy was Dib Membrane and the girl who tried to save him was Gaz Membrane, both were there the day that the school exploded and each survived. Two more were there that day, a Zim and Tak. Neither were human, he knew that now. He had seen the thing named Tak first hand when he broke into her house just before she captured him, then again while she was doing something to him. The train of thoughts faltered, he remembered screaming, his screams to be exact, the wiring of machines and so much blood... Good god…

Wilson froze, he did not move for some time, processing his last realization before looking to the ground. Scattered around him, were shards of metal, melted smooth from the heat of the explosion, and shards of glass that must have been part of the windshield and windows. Fearfully, he reached over to a particularly large piece of reflective glass, a shard of his car's side mirrors and held it to his face to see his reflection. The detective gasped in terror and dismay.

The image of the long gouge in his head was burned into his mind; What was he? Why was he? He threw away the glass and looked at his hands; they were splattered with a glowing blue liquid. Through the spaces between his fingers he saw his leg, the 'bone' that the girl had snapped, leaking the same liquid. Unable to take it all in anymore, the Detective's body tried to vomit, achieving nothing but a few dry heaves and more blue fluid. Returning to his Position, Wilson promptly gave in to despair. He had no idea which realization was worse, that he had lost his humanity, or that this was not much of a loss to his life before.

Despair gave way to anger towards the things that did this to him. That Tak had used him. Turned him into an abomination, a monster… a slave. Even now, he could feel her machines inside him, repairing him, getting him ready to do her bidding again… The detective thought in horror to the resistance in his mind, whenever he tried to think on his own, it was like he could feel it trying to stop him. This was not the life he wanted, anything would be better than this.

Reaching a solid conclusion, Detective Wilson resigned himself to this fate. Hands shaking he gripped his gun in fingers not his own, and held it to his head. The last thing he could choose was when he died, being a slave to some terrorist alien was something he could not allow. The broken man saw everything he had done to lead up to this point, all those people trying to help him… he should have at least tried to cooperate, maybe it would have saved him. Maybe he had atoned enough to see her again, maybe this wasn't the end...

The husk of a man thought to pull the trigger… right before the machine in his head took over again, overriding his last wish. Wilson stood up, and looked around; someone had to catch those two criminals before they blew more city property. He had to serve the people. As he slid into one of the alleyways, Wilson felt something trail down his face, before settling upon his chin, and then dropping to the ground. He paid no notice to the tear as it landed on the ground, and faded away with his last ounce of humanity.

* * *

Zim and Dib worked on the cruiser as Gaz watched TV on one of Zim's monitors with Gir, eating popcorn out of the little robots head. The lights had been disabled so the little girl could operate her stupid little machine, forcing Zim to activate one of the minimum power generators, causing the lights to flicker every now and again, constantly on the threat of dying out. The flickering unnerved the two enemies, working as far as possible from the other.

During one rather long blackout, Dib froze and looked over to where he last saw Zim. Unbeknownst to the human, he was gripping the tool in his hand like a vice and started to sweat. A series of clicks resounded around him, noises that had been there but he hadn't noticed until know. In his mind he imagined Zim using his PAK legs to climb atop the voot cruiser and pounce on him from above, or that he would simply shoot him from the darkness, maybe he was priming the gun right now…

A beam of light broke through the darkness; Dib reacted immediately to the new threat. Swinging the tool in his hands like a bat, he knocked the gun from Zim's hands causing it to clatter to the floor and earning a surprised yelp from the alien. Dib turned his weapon around and went to swing again where he thought Zim had fallen, only to have the tool loose much of its weight, throwing him off balance to the floor behind him. He pushed himself back from the darkness in front of him still gripping the end of his improvised weapon as if it might save him, he pressed himself against Zim's ship and closed his eyes, waiting for the end.

"Dib." Zim addressed him in a rather hostile tone, the human did not open his eyes or relieve his stressed muscles, and he would not give an Irken the satisfaction of an answer.

"Dib, this is not the time… get up!" Something was flung at him, it slammed into the ship above his head, shocking him into opening his eyes. The lights were back on, Zim was standing some seven yards away, muttering and massaging his hand. Looking to the floor in front of him, Dib noticed two things, Zim's gun and the other half of the tool he was using as a weapon. Picking up the gun, he pointed it at the Irken. He immediately noticed and turned on Dib, who was shaking slightly. Zim looked surprised and somewhat amused at the thing in his hand, like he thought he still had it with him.

"You w-were going to shoot m-me." Dib stuttered, still mired in shock and fear. Zim smirked despite being held at gunpoint, he knew something.

"Do you even know what that is?" Zim asked with a slight chuckle. Dib panicked, perhaps it was without an ammo clip or charge or whatever. This frightened the human even more and Zim could see it.

"It's a flashlight you idiot, Just try and pull the trigger, I dare you." The alien's elation died down and was replaced by annoyance. Curious and frightened, Dib pointed the instrument at the floor and pulled the trigger, a beam of non-lethal light was shone onto the cool metal between them. It was then that Dib realized his mistake. Rather than holding it over the human, Zim simply grunted and returned to work, followed quickly by the human.

More blackouts followed, but no more fights ensued, the tension was still there, everyone could sense it. The atmosphere was really taking a toll on Dib. He could not accept the idea of Zim helping him, even to save his own skin. He knew that Zim was selfish down to his alien core, he would sacrifice his own robot, just for 'The mission'… or he would have a year ago. If he would sell out his only friend, what would he do to his arch nemesis and second greatest enemy?

That wasn't the only thing troubling Dib. In the hypothetical and extremely illogical situation that they somehow manage to get to Tak, then what? He was sure that Zim was better at fighting since Tak re-trained him, but how good was he really? It came down to who he thought would be able to best the other, Tak's fighting style always struck him as that of a panther's, smooth, agile, careful. Zim's fighting style, always seemed to lead back to that of a wolf's, loud, unfair and somewhat desperate even when he had the upper hand, Perhaps things had changed, but he was still Zim and she was still his teacher…

A tool was set to the ground behind him, Dib sluggishly turned around to see why Zim wasn't working anymore. The Irken typed in a few commands into his PDA and then activated one small machine that started to transfer some kind of fluid into the Voot cruiser. Turning to his companion with a weary sigh, Zim addressed him.

"Dib, we need to have a talk." The words struck him off balance, Zim? Talking? Rationally? He followed the alien to a corner of the repair bay, boxes and equipment littered the floor like a child's play area. The Irken rested his elbows on one of the boxes and began to massage his temples as if a headache were plaguing him. After a few moments of awkward staring, Zim got up from the box, held his hands behind his back and began their talk.

"This isn't working." He said simply, Dib knew immediately what he was talking about, their alliance was weak and they each were on edge for good reasons.

"I agree." Dib nodded, understanding the need to reform the idea before arming in rifles and assaulting Tak's base. Zim looked surprised, but pleasantly so, encouraging him to continue.

"If you were another Irken, I would offer a truce, however, your kind is not bound by such laws of loyalty and honor such as mine is…" Dib suppressed his rising anger, he did not point out that humans were capable of such things, he did not point out that Irkens traded their conscious for these values. Zim seemed surprised at Dib's reaction, or lack of one other than an odd vein that became visible on his forehead. Ignoring the human's hidden feelings he continued.

"If you don't help me, we both die. I can get us to her base… but I can't get to her alone." Zim sighed again, deflated after admitting his own weakness in the matter. Despite having his own opinions, it was still very shocking to hear any form of confirmation of inability from the aliens own mouth. Zim leaned back until he was leaning against one of the crates.

"Can I trust you to follow me, obey my orders, and if worst comes to worst, can you do what is necessary?" Dib looked into Zim's eyes as he said all of this, his gaze was so piercing that the human felt his own eye sight slipping away to look at other things, as if guilty. When he looked back up at Zim, the alien had one hand extended, using a human custom. Dib returned the gesture and they shook hands.

"There is a saying amongst Irkens," Zim said as they shook, "Translated into your human language, it is this 'No sacrifices, no heroics, either both make it alive, or neither do.'" Each let go of the others hand. Dib felt shaken by the Irken's words, he felt confident that Zim would hold his word above any grudges they still held, and he himself felt somewhat bound by this agreement they shared.

"The voot is almost prepped, I'll show you to the armory." Zim set off, purposefully in the direction of a nearby elevator, followed quickly by Dib, who couldn't help but wonder what he had just gotten himself into.

**This is… crap(and I will be fixing it soon, I just needed to get what I have out into the air.). Readers, I thank you for your tolerance of this obnoxiously long waiting time, and I apologize for the fact that I cannot deliver a 'great' chapter by anyone's lowest standards (yet). However, I hope that now that this chapter is over, I can finally get back to the better parts of this story. Thank you all again for waiting so long… (or maybe no one cares?) ah well, in that case whatever. A new update will be coming soon, no promises. I give almost weekly messages on my "updates no one will read" section of my profile. Questions, comments, hate mail; PM me, I will respond.**


	19. The Arrival

Zim and Dib sat in the Voot cruiser, speeding over the city bellow. The human had little to no idea where they were going, and his companion had made no move to enlighten him. Simply accepting this as normal behavior, Dib occupied his time looking down at the extensive destruction bellow.

The fires had spread from downtown, and now skyscrapers were alight, mindless drones of Tak's were roaming around in packs, putting out no fires and caring only a little for their health. A few were close enough to tell that they were badly burned, but alive. Of in the distance, a skyscraper toppled over its 'self, it was most likely that no one was inside, but still, he couldn't help but feel a deep sadness with a pang of guilt.

These were people, thinking and feeling (or at least they were) and now they all were Tak's pawns, tools she operated and disposed of as such. Dib couldn't help but feel that much of this was his fault, that if he had let Zim's comments slide then none of this would have happened. Awestruck by the sheer amount of destruction, he continued to watch, memorizing every face imprinting every detail to his mind, he needed to remember next time what simple revenge could do, if there ever was a next time.

"So much…" Dib started, but ultimately left the comment open ended. Zim gave him a sidelong look before responding as if it had been a question.

"It's not that bad." He commented quietly as if all the loss was nothing to him.

"How can you say that?" Dib said as he looked at the alien as if he were completely insane, so Zim elaborated.

"Excuse my lack of sympathy Human, I have seen worlds burn, worlds of people with lives not too different from theirs-" he motioned to the city bellow.

"But you should still feel-" Dib started, awestruck that Zim really didn't feel anything for so much gone wrong, he was cut off.

"I have seen their remaining populations enslaved or butchered, I bled and spilt blood to see it happen, do not presume to judge me on feelings." Dib looked at Zim with anger, this was his planet he was talking about. It was easy for him to simply shrug it off, Human deaths were just a statistic to him. He voiced these thoughts with a light sigh.

"Easy for you to say…" Dib muttered to him as he wandered back to the window, Zim's angry glare was directed upon him for a few moments before drifting back to the city, and by extension; the devastation he had helped to cause.

"It will never be easy… " Zim whispered, pain evident on his face now that Dib had turned away, all of this was so familiar. He remembered every moment of the end of Operation Impending Doom, he knew every bit of that was his fault. The human could never know the crushing feeling that conveyed. Zim almost told him the tale, however, that was not a story to be relayed to a human. A deep rumbling interrupted Zim's thought process and the source of the noise drew the attention of the two beings.

"There it is." Zim spoke quietly, referring to the enormous transport ship launching into atmosphere. It was a large bulky, scarab-like shuttle with four landing 'legs' that were currently curled up along the bottom and a multipurpose drone cockpit placed on the top. The curved windows strangely resembled insect like eyes to Dib. Where the ship had been stationed, there were several hundred humans, all wandering around aimlessly. They were most likely the freshly indoctrinated, being dropped off to search for them.

"Were going to follow that back to her." Zim elaborated while typing several commands into the ship console. The tiny voot flew within the enormous ship's gravity field and molded it's speed and movements with that of the larger ship. Up close, one could see how truly massive it was, Dib was in awe, Zim was unfazed for he had seen much, much larger.

As the ship flew alongside the enormous transport, Zim reflected on how all of this had happened. What had started out as a simple competition between former partners over a common prize had taken a turn for the worse. He had been contemplating Tak's behavior for some time now and had come to some serious conclusions.

Tak was out of control, he started having doubts about her motivations when she destroyed his maim-bot. She had then turned her anger upon him as well as the Dib. While the core room stare down had shown him that she wasn't yet willing to kill him, something just wasn't right. The female he remembered would never have given away their mission for petty revenge. He looked out the window just as they cleared the earth's atmosphere, allowing the stars surrounding the planet to shine through.

The Voot sped alongside the cargo ship as it traveled around the earth towards an unknown destination, but one he felt confident in. Behind him, Dib was marveling at the earth bellow, where the city had been was but an orange dot, visible only because they had left the dark side of the planet, that faded away as they drifted. The stars were an equally mesmerizing sight with their incredible numbers and brightness but then the true wonder appeared.

Around the edge of the blue green planet bellow them, a magnificent light shone, blinding momentarily Dib with its luminance. As they traveled, his vision cleared and allowed a magnificent view of the sun and the moon orbiting earth. The moon slightly overlapped the sun and allowed half of its mass to be framed in the stunning light. Dib was speechless, while he had been in space before; he had taken little time to observe how beautiful it truly was. Zim noticed his open mouthed stare and smirked to himself; some reactions, he reasoned, were simply universal.

As they traveled, the moon came closer and closer, and along with it, a small black shape outlined by the yellow ball of flame. The nearer they got to the satellite; a space station came into view. It was of familiar irken structure and design, a claw like shape with one sphere connected to it in the center. The mass of metal was colored a deep purple, grey, black and blue, giving it an odd camouflage at long range, Tak's insignia was all over it.

Dib set his mouth into a thin line, his previously amazed look darkening at the sight. He was impressed and yet somewhat suspicious that Zim had been able to find Tak's base. Surely it couldn't be that easy-

"Docking restricted, please enter clearanced pass-code, leave the area, or face obliteration. " An oddly cheerful voice announced over Zim's intercom, interrupting the two being's thought processes. Zim cured in a language Dib didn't understand while typing away at his dashboard. A Beep followed.

"Password incorrect, you have five seconds to leave the area before termination." The voice told them happily.

"Five." Zim's hands danced across the ships control panel. Dib looked out at the station in time to see several panels be pulled away from the outer hull and many deadly looking turrets replacing them. The Voot lurched as it started towards an opening on the side of the station

"Four." The guns aimed at them, Dib looked over at Zim, alarmed to see sweat dripping down the alien's face in concentration… or worry.

"Three." A large cannon appeared atop the station, it was easily five time larger than the ship they were in. Blood drained from Dibs face as he watching it aim at them.

"Two." Small beams of light appeared in the nozzle of every one of the many turrets. The ship was so far away from the station. Dib turned to his companion with worry lining his face.

"Zim?" he asked plaintively, his voice cracking slightly in fear.

"One." The largest of the turrets' had an enormous ball of light in its depths. The deadline made Dib cringe in fear, would he ever see anything again?

"Goodbye." They all fired at once, the bolts of energy leaping towards them at alarming paces, the human yelled and threw himself to the floor moments before they would impact. He felt the ship lurch beneath him, an alarm went off. Cracking an eye he saw Zim, both hands as far as they would reach across the dashboard, sending to Voot hurtling towards the station. The Irken gritted his teeth in concentration and effort to keep the ship from straying off course.

He had been lucky that that little burst of speed had dodged as many of those projectiles as it had, if any more had impacted; they would both be dead right now. Dib got up to his shaky feet and once more looked out the window. He saw the turrets preparing to fire again as they flew at an alarming pace directly at a window of the station.

"Zim-"

"I know." The irken replied firmly, almost painfully gritting his teeth in his struggle to keep control of the ship. Using one hand to type something into the dashboard, they both watched as the station unleashed a barrage of plasma that they couldn't hope to escape, Zim forced his ship into one last lunge as his own weapons fired upon the glass window, shattering it and allowing them passage. The two beings threw themselves to the floor as the Voot's windshield caved in above them from the impact with the ground.

Fire surged around the ship as it slammed into the floor of the station, shaking violently and letting out a horrendous screeching sound to accompany the sparks of its slide across the ground. All of the sudden, the ship came to a halt, it's momentum failing it. The hunk of metal simply came to rest upon the floor of Tak's station and was left to burn.

* * *

Tak lay in a white medical bay unit. The upper part of her head lay covered in equally white bandages with a pinkish stain horizontal along the back. She was dressed in a normal patient gown and had recently been cleaned, her hand's bandages removed and replaced with cleaner ones. The Irken lay motionless for so long, her chest rising and falling with a respirator in a sickly synchronized motion.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly so, her breather began to grow deeper. Tak's fists began to close around the sheets she lay in. Her mind remained absent, not in control, the machines around her were sure of that, but lower brain function seemed to be unimpaired by the operation previous that day. Her bandaged fists continued to squeeze harder and harder, crushing the sheets in between them.

With a gasp, Tak awoke. Her eyes did not open as they were covered, but she was aware. Her breathing became shallow, and the respirator reflected this, taking in short amounts of air and then releasing them just as quickly. After a few moments, she had calmed down, evening her breath and unclenching her fists. She even managed to sit up correctly before trying to grasp the situation again.

Tak felt around her face, particularly around her eyes, and mouth rubbing the area where her eyes would be and then yawning. Slowly, with the movements of one getting out of a really soft bed after a long, restful night's sleep. She gripped the edges of the bed in order to keep her balance before dropping off the side. Hitting the ground with more force than intended, she was dropped her to her hands and knees.

Tak recovered quickly and stood up, unsteadily to say the least. She leaned against the bed next to her for support until she could plan her next move. While she was still catching her breath, Tak noticed the whirring noise in the walls around her, sign of a scan.

"Hello Mistress." The computer's base droned out, as if it really cared about her. Tak found that a frown drew its path along her face as she heard the machine's voice.

"The operation was successful, my programming compels me to remind you that this act has broken more than thirty laws in the Irken empire. Seeing how I have been modified for your needs, however, I will continue to serve my mistress. Despite this, I shall list the laws broken," Tak ignored the voice as it prattled on about how many more regulations she had broken, and instead chose to get feeling back into her legs, bending each experimentally and then attempting to walk. She found that they were able to support her weight, though not surprising as she had most likely been fed only that disgusting paste while she was out.

"-and therefore you are scheduled for imprisonment and execution should you ever renter Irken Empire Territory." Tak's fist clenched as she was reminded of what she could not do. She would never return home, and that insensitive A.I. was rubbing it in, unknowing or not. Tak stumbled over to a side table, arms extended as to ensure that she would not fall. Upon reaching it, she fumbled with the drawer handle for a few moments before pulling the entire thing to the floor, scattering its contents all around her. Tak cursed before getting to her knees and feeling around.

"The approximate number of days you still have left to be banished are still being calculated, current numbers reach over twelve million years, two days, and eleven hours." Tak fumbled around more franticly, gritting her teeth. She felt several small stabs from the shattered glass and bent needles around her. The incessant machine still blathered on, not helping, not caring.

"Would you like me to replay your last transmition with the tallest mistress?" Tak sighed, stopping her search long enough to respond.

"What do you think?" She asked angrily, layering her words with hostility and sarcasm, the machine responded after a moment of calculation.

"Interpreting vague answer as yes." Tak's jaw fell open, this thing was impossible to be reasoned with. The recording started, and she continued to slide her hands across the floor, hoping to find it soon. Laughter was all around her, she could hear red and purple mocking her, their stupid laughter, getting under her skin.

"Y-Your serious? Zim B-beat you?" Purple had asked right before another bout of uncontrolled laughter. Tak cupped her hands around her partially covered antennas, the noise was not blocked.

"How can anyone take you seriously again?" Red asked while laughing so hard he had to clutch his stomach. Their voices made her so angry… Tak could feel their laughter, no amount of pressure she put on her head would stop the noise. Her blood seemed to boil with rage and embarrassment; she fumbled around on the ground before grabbing the bottom of a chair that had been resting against the walls. They made her so angry so-

"SHUT UP!" Tak screamed at the loudspeaker as she instinctively gripped her claw into a tight fist in the direction she could hear all of the noise coming from. Seemingly of it's own accord, the little box compressed in on itself; a tiny explosion and silence followed. The Irken continued screaming as he hand gripped tighter and tighter, the machine compressed within itself. Finally, out of breath and willpower; she stopped yelling and allowed her hand to fall to her side.

The Irken's head swam and soon a headache took over her mind, she was panting while gripping the side of the bed for balance. Once she was sure that she would not fall over, she began to tear away at the bandages around her head, forsaking the previous search for a syringe or something sharp to cut the wrappings.

Though her hands were bandaged, Tak made quick work of the linins, and was able to shred the remaining bits of cloth from her face. Opening her eyes slowly, the Irken was assaulted by a blinding light radiating from the overhead light. She shut them tightly and then blocked her eye lids with her hands, as if she could shut out the world that way. Slowly, even slower than before, Tak opened her shut eyes, squinting because of the over bright light.

It was only when the stinging in her eyes faded that she noticed the cut on the back of her head. Reaching back, she retracted her claw quickly from the tender wound with a wince. Checking the operation review, she realized that the operation had been successful, no more 'warning' shocks.

Ignoring the pain for the time being, Tak wandered out into the hall, making her way down to the armory. While she was getting dressed into her regular apparel, the Irken felt something, an anxious yet warm feeling that occupied the center of her chest, it wasn't painful, yet it was uncomfortable all the same. The feeling followed her into the hall, past the armory, up the elevator and to the control room.

Tak found herself skimming the mission report instead of giving it her full attention. She wanted to focus on this feeling she wanted to focus on Z-

"Mimi!" Tak shouted in a horse voice, there was an eco of her harsh call, followed by silence. She raised an eyebrow before returning to the report resting before her. Perhaps her plan had gone erroneous and her minion had left for earth to clear things up? Not entirely implausible, but highly unlikely.

"Compu-"An alarm above her suddenly blared, something wasn't right. The windows surrounding her command center all had their protective shielding descend around them protecting her from some unknown projectile. The command center's hidden data monitors all descended from the ceiling, rose from the floors and rapidly scrolled down information, targeting relevant data and sending it all to Tak's private security terminal.

Training kicked into the Irken's mind as her fingers danced across the terminal's screen, locking all docking bay doors. She had started to seal the outer bulkheads when the lights flickered and an alarm went off. All data cleared and was replaced by an impact site on the outer hull. The bulkheads were already descending to close up the breach. She was dumbstruck. What could possibly have hit them?

Tak typed in a few commands into her console and watched as a security recording began to play, displaying the empty void of space with her last delivery of human's returning but there was something else... It was just a speck at first, but soon became clear enough to be defined as an Irken ship, hurtling towards them. Tak paused the recording and slumped back into her chair, It wasn't possible. There was no way that he could have known where her station was. How could she stop such destructive power now that it was on her ship? Zim would ruin everything without a second thought.

Tak began to rub her temples as she tried to formulate a last resort plan. Suddenly, she remembered something from her report; that detective had been extracted for major repairs so he could capture Dib. It would be perfect! She could give him the order and then watch from afar as he killed Zim! There wouldn't be any guilt as it wouldn't technically be her fault. The Irken frowned as she typed the commands into her terminal, rationalizing what she was doing to make it seem right.

As an afterthought, Tak also began to prime the base's security functions, if Zim wanted to get to her, he was going to have to go through hell.

**It's been so long… 38 days to be exact. That is a total of 30 days behind schedule. If I could have, this story would be completed. I'm sure most of you understand but I'm still sorry. I have to give it one last run over after posting this but I think it all connects together. For those who are kind enough to review; is this too soon? What would you like to see happen? And where is Gir? All of these can be answered with your opinion. Once again; sorry for my neglegence.**


	20. Good Intentions

No one ever said it was easy. No one ever said it would be so unbelievably hard.

Those words rang in Zim's head as he lay on the cold metal floor of Irk. Fire raged all around him, yet he simply lay on his back with his hands folded neatly on his stomach. His crushed maimbot lay crumpled but half a mile away, burning like the rest of his home world. Maybe this time the Irkens would stay down and think about how their society was failing. About the paths they have taken.

After years of failed attempts, perhaps he had finally broken them down to the point of total reformation? The Irken could only hope, a variable foreign to him, that somewhere out there, the remaining control brains were comparing figures and reaching the conclusion that universal domination wasn't worth this. Zim refused to get up as the wind blew a few embers along with some smoke close to his eyes, causing them to water. He simply focused on the serene clouds overhead.

Perhaps he had finally snapped like they all said he was prone to, or maybe… maybe he was the last sane drone in their corrupt government. He squeezed his eyes shut at the thought of all his brothers and sisters in the corps that had to be extinguished in order to send a message to the civilians. One little discovery… It should never have come to this and he almost wished he hadn't found out about it. Tears streamed silently down his face as he apologized to them, but he knew that it had to be done. The tallest would have to take notice or be threatened. Someone had to take the first step.

Zim took notice of one cloud as it flew by. It was partially corrupted with smoke and ash, but it seemed like a ship flying off into space. He wished desperately that he was upon said cloud-ship and leaving the ruins of his mind and the planet around him. He held back a sob as he shut his eyes again, nothing he ever did from this point on would be justified... billions dead, not all his doing but they had to be sacrificed for the greater good. Zim could only pray that they forgave him for it.

A slight shift in the air temperature and pressure occurred. Suddenly, instead of comfortably lying on his back, he was flat on his face, looking at the metal floor. Slowly, he tried to get up, finding his arms and legs very weak, he fell back to the ground. That's when a hand gripped his shoulder.

"Zim." A voice growled his name angrily, he imagined that Tallest Red and his elite guard had finally found him, but the voice was oddly organic. He was hoisted into the air to meet the furious gaze of a familiar human.

'Dib lifting me up by himself… he must have gotten stronger…' Zim's mind thought groggily, allowing past and present to conflict in a seamless way only he could comprehend. However his mind was hardly even able of realizing where he was or how he got here. Everything seemed to be slow and muffled; his head pulsed, but didn't hurt, though he thought it should for some reason.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Dib screamed into his face while shaking him. Zim flopped limply in his grip, unable to grasp the meaning of the human's words. Something nagged at him, he had to do something. He was here for a reason.

"You could have killed us both!" Dib yelled, looking around in panic. It was obvious that the human was in shock from something. Where were they anyway? It was dark, but there was a bright light illuminating Dib's face coming from somewhere behind them.

"Zim!" Dib shook him again, and in a rush, it all came back. He gasped as his heart rate spiked and his breathing faltered. Not even bothering to stabilize his body, the Irken jerked his head wildly to look over at his burning ship. His eyes widened and his mind went numb. His ship…

Zim pulled himself to his unsteady feet and shoved the human away from him, Dib landed awkwardly and sat in a dazed state. Once the alien regained some semblance of balance, he stumbled over a few yards closer to his ship. The beautiful curves and colors of the voot were now bent and chipped, scorched and charred. Years of design modifications and perfecting it all gone up into flames again. The canopy had a hole in it about his size broken through the front; he assumed that the impact had thrown him from it.

"What do we do now?" Dib shouted over the alarms and the roar of the flames that had just made themselves noticeable to Zim, but he couldn't care less. He was locked upon the flames raging inside his ship, focusing on the new realization that this could be the end of everything he had left. He had prepared himself for battle, but now that he was here, it just seemed so unreal. But that was just like the old days he supposed. War was impossible to prepare oneself for. He just had to do what he always did.

Zim closed his eyes and took several deep breaths; he shut everything out and got his priorities together. Opening his eyes, he set about searching for any remaining weapons. Dib was still wild-eyed, terrified from the lingering aftereffects of shellshock, and propped up against some rubble. One of his lenses was cracked and the bruises that covered his body seemed painful, but he was breathing and that was good for the time being.

Zim pulled a seemingly intact rifle out from under a bent piece of metal; once it came loose he was able to see that the other half of the weapon was missing. The Irken tossed the useless scrap away and moved to the next pile of trash. He was not optimistic about their chances without weapons and it seemed as though luck would not provide them with even one.

Minuets passed with fruitless searching before he came upon two half charged pistols. Zim smirked to himself as he picked them up and glanced back at the Dib. The human was still in shock and had not noticed he had found anything. It would be so easy, all he would need to do is slip one in his PAK and the human would be none the wiser. He looked down at the two guns as he mulled the last thoughts that entered his head, deciding against it, he kept both out as he approached the terrified boy.

Now was not the time to incite a possible incident with Dib, who was just now gaining basic control of his senses and attempting to stand. Despite his previous thought, Zim pulled the firing mechanism a few centimeters to the left, disconnecting it from the ammo chamber, effectively rendering the gun useless. He couldn't afford to lose the human's trust, but he was equally sure that he could not afford a trigger-happy, shadow-jumping child wielding a loaded gun. This way, everyone wins. A cynical way to put it but he was in no mental state to think of a better one.

Setting the guns within visible range of the human, Zim helped Dib back to his feet. The child swayed while holding his slightly bruised head for a few moments, during which the Irken looked everywhere but at him. It was as if he was ashamed, Dib would later think to himself, avoiding eye contact was what the other children at School would have called a 'tell'. Despite this, he had much more

Dib was having a severe headache along with a twisted ankle some minor bruising along his neck, back and head followed immediately by nausea. He vomited, not that there was much in his stomach to start with, but his body tried. Zim took several disgusted steps back as the boy did this. If this were any other moment at any other place, he would have at least verbally reprimanded the human smeet for desecrating his uniform's boots. As it was, he had to hold his tongue. Without words, he patted the boy on his back, gaining the attention of the retching human.

"I found two pistols…" Zim said dumbly, at a loss for words other than what was obvious. He quickly retrieved one and presented Dib's.

"I'd noticed." Dib commented mildly angry, snagging the gun from the alien's hand as if he would change his mind if he waited but another second. His throat burned, his head throbbed, his legs were bruised and it was all Zim's doing. God forbid his 'partner' tell him something about their mission, too bad if it could kill him… Zim and his all consuming agenda almost took them both out again.

While the Irken had been thrown from the wreckage like a limp ragdoll, he had to kick at the hole created by Zim in order to be able to climb out. All while aware of the threat of the ship exploding or being burned alive by the fires that quickly consumed the cockpit. His head was swimming from the whole ordeal including and following their crash-landing. The only thing Dib could so was control his breathing and stumble over to a safe distance away from the ship. Now he was calming down, the adrenalin of their life-threatening situation was receding.

Zim eyed him for a moment, studying the human for weakness that was all too eager to show itself, before walking off in the direction of a pipe covered wall. Dib growled with the effort of getting up to follow, his joints screaming in protest. All he could do was grit his teeth and take it one step at a time, muttering scornful words at the alien who seemed to have recovered completely.

By the time he reached the wall, Zim had pulled a data-pad out and was plugging it into what looked like a fuse box with all the wires sticking out. Once connected, small symbols, some of which he recognized as irken, raced across the screen. The Irken tapped a few of them before pulling something out of his pocket with a slight grin. Dib looked at the device in his hand and recognized it as a Sir Unit's memory core.

"Is that Gir's?" Dib asked, his curiosity overcoming his hesitation. Zim smirked wider before plugging it in.

"You could say that." Data rushed across the screen and the base around them seemed to pulse for a moment. Dib looked closely at the data-pad and tried to decipher the symbols. He was able to make out the word 'downloading' before Zim slipped it into the wire filled box and motioned him to a nearby door.

* * *

Tak typed away quietly at her workstation in a pace too slow to only be working. As such she was also toiling within her own thoughts. She thought about many things to avoid the subject she was actively 'dealing with' in the cargo bay. Several distractions were used before resorting to such petty tactics; trying to locate her SIR unit's tracker signal, and then trying to check it's visual recordings, both were wiped deliberately by Mimi herself. That done, she began to deactivate all the drones on Earth. Such pointless little tools combing the streets for a target not even there, a waste of resources and energy. That done, she returned to the hanger area, a breach in one of her system links, it had to be Zim.

In fact, she was in the middle of typing a command to security when everything seemed to freeze.

Cocking her head slightly in a confused manner, Tak waved her hand over her console. All of the monitors in the room descended from their concealed slots in the walls and hovered inward inward to form a kind of shield around her. The Irken's throat went dry, she hadn't ordered this.

"Computer?" Nothing followed. For once in her life, Tak wished it would say something. Unable to leave with the system's frozen like this, she activated the contingency measure for a system reboot.

"Run Fallback Seventy Six hundred, refresh all systems." The room's lights flickered for a moment as the base restarted. Soon after the base whirred back to life, but the screens stayed where they were.

"W- Welcome back Mmmmistress." It droned out through static, Tak gave a sigh of relief but stopped in the middle of it. The computer's voice seemed to have changed, it was never this deep or broken up before.

"Would you l-like to listen to some music and watch some Televisssson?" The base asked her. Tak was about to inquire as to where this order had come from when it spoke again.

"Command Accepted." The machine seemed to be taking orders from itself now. The Irken's mouth fell open in disbelief as all the screens switched to human television channels that blared their volume to unreasonable heights. Before Tak could move, the chair she sat in sprouted several belts that held her in place. And then the base began to sing.

"Daisy Daisy, Give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you-" It blathered out of tune in a voice slower and deeper than normal, seconds later, it switched to a quick high voice before dropping in pitch again.

The noises all blended together and the screens began to swirl around her in a way beyond mesmerizing. It was all too much for Tak and she found herself being overwhelmed by the sensory overload. She was getting sick just from the dizzying feeling of the spinning screens, her ears throbbed from the assault, only amplified by the silence she had been reveling in not seconds before and the operation that left her nerves raw. Her eyes widened and her antennas stood up on end, trying pointlessly to absorb it all.

The corruption in her base begin to spread at an alarming pace, doors began to slam and the shutters were descending and then retracting, the lights began to flicker and the situation spiraled out of control. Tak watched it all happen, and began to struggle against the belts that constricted against her, earning a few inches to get her legs up. Pushing with all her strength, she pulled herself from the chairs grasp.

The noises grew louder by the second and Tak knew Zim could hear them; the intercom was activated and only served to blare the computer's insanity throughout the base. It was all so pointless, so counterproductive. With one final push she was able to roll out of the base's grasp. Standing shakily, Tak stumbled over to the center of her command station, alive with sound and visuals. She felt so tired and disconnected from what was happening around her.

As if in a trance, she dropped to her knees right in front of her command chair and pulled away the emergency panel there. Underneath it was the crisis level A situation A.I. core shutdown. She smiled groggily, thinking about how much she hated that stupid artificial intelligence's voice, ironic that it was a copy of her own personality but a year ago. So much had changed since then that she could hardly even relate to the thing that sang songs overhead. With a quick and deliberate motion, she tore the core from its holding place.

The entire station shut down, everything, including the air-filters, was off. It did not last as the station rebooted not a moment afterwards. The Irken had no doubt that this was Zim's plan. To corrupt her computer systems and stop her from arming it's defenses. He most likely hadn't expected her to be able to shut off the core, but she was still put at a disadvantage from the attack. Now the base commands would have to be done manually from a connection port, an act that would require much more time than she was used to. It didn't matter right now she had other things to worry about.

Tak observed the core in her hand, a spherical object that pulsed blue. Without a second thought or even a hint of remorse, she dropped it to the ground and crushed it beneath her boot. It made several satisfying cracking and sputtering noises as it 'died' and she allowed herself a weak, but triumphant laugh. That done, Tak wandered out of the control room to get some medication to wake her overworked nerves up, and to finish preparing for Zim and Dib.

**Work is stacking up for me as the spring and summer months kick in, so writing is taking even LONGER than usual. On a related note; I have no more than three chapters left until this story is done. Oh and fine tuning the ending is finished; I wanted to ask if anyone would read it and give me some input. Otherwise, I could really use some input on what is happening in the current chapter. Thoughts, feelings, and so on. Next update is for The Horrible Smartening. BTW sorry it's late. I meant to do it at twelve but some things came up. Not completely done being scanned, mistakes galore, I will find them but help would be appreciated.**


	21. The Defective Detective

Dib held his alien pistol close, drawing comfort from the cool and solid metal as the after effects of shellshock wore down from his weary body. Zim marched a few paces ahead of him, scanning the floor and walls with a trained eye. Dib was afraid to ask what kind of traps he was looking for, knowing full well that they were most likely the kind to leave quite a mess, or not enough for any evidence to be pulled from.

They were currently headed down a long hallway that curved around the station, creating a feeling of foreboding as to what may be around the next bend. Zim seemed nervous, jumping every time that Dib coughed or when his footfalls grew too loud. It was beyond apparent that he was just as weary as Dib, if not more so due to his sickness.

His partner's antennas stood on end, twitching to every noise, including the pulsing tone that seemed to be the norm here. All around them was a slight humming noise. It seemed as though the very walls vibrated with the droning, that danced upon the edge of their senses. It was the kind of noise that grated upon the nerves until you brought your attention to it, growing louder the harder you try to ignore it. It did nothing to make Dib feel any better about the situation they were in.

The human was aware of the danger they were in, to point that it was more harmful than helpful. He would jump at every shady corner, hover in anticipation when Zim would stop to scan a hallway, and even came close to shooting the Irken when he tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Aside from their nerves, things seemed to be going smoothly… almost too smoothly if you would ask the human. It seemed as though Tak was waiting for them, and the thought of it made him even more nervous than that white noise.

"Are you sure you know where your going?" Dib hopped ahead of Zim to voice his major concerns about what was happening… when the hallway lights shifted to a red gloom and alarms went off.

Zim wasted no time in shoving Dib to the ground and then diving to the floor next to him. Where they had been standing before, two cables headed by claws snatched at the air. They quickly turned and lunged down at them, Zim was up in no time flat and pulled Dib out of the way. He then extended his PAK legs and cut one of the claws down. The other claw attempted to grab the Dib, who jumped out of the way just in time.

Two sections of wall on either side of them flipped to reveal turrets that quickly zeroed in on the two. Zim's eyes widened at the sight of the two wall mounted guns, however he still managed to pick the Dib up and weave his way through the pulse rounds being fired at them by using his mechanical PAK legs. During the run the human felt a projectile wiz past his head, dangerously close. Zim continued down the path as more guns and cables appeared, shooting and grabbing at them the entire way. Zim was growing tired and his PAK legs shook with each new stride and dodge making the projectiles fly closer.

Suddenly, down the hall, a pathway seemed to open up before them; however the panel then started to close. Despite the fact that it was dark inside and obviously led deeper into the station, Zim threw Dib inside and slid beneath the shifting wall just before it sealed. They both lay there, weary from the sudden exertion, for a few minutes. Zim stood up first, retracting his PAK legs before looking back at the now seamless wall. Dib shakily stood next to him, noticing that Zim seemed worried. However, worry quickly turned to anger when he turned to the human.

"Dib beast, when Zim says you are to stay back, you stay back!" Dib shifted uncomfortably beneath Zim's gaze. The alien shook his head and sighed.

"This is not a game Dib; you need to be more careful." The Irken continued in a calmer tone as he gained control of himself.

"Sorry…" Dib muttered as Zim walked past him. They now stood in a cramped passageway between two large machines, the alien started confidently to an opening at the other end. Reaching the corner, he peaked out cautiously before checking the floor and then stepping out slowly, gun at the ready. Dib followed right behind him, stepping only where his companion had stepped first.

It seemed as though they were in a purple version of Zim's labs, complete with tubes and utensils. Everything looked brand new and smelled of sterilizing chemicals, but most importantly; the noise was gone and no alarms had gone off in this room.

Zim had suspected that Tak was using that sound to make them jumpy, a subtle tactic that she was fond of. It worked so well that he most likely would have stepped on that sensor if the Dib hadn't. The turrets seemed premature, they would normally all activate at once, but it seemed that Tak was working slower without her command center up and running. Despite her slower pace, he most likely would be dead now it that passage hadn't shown itself, but a hunch said Tak had a hand in that as well.

"Lucky that door opened up…" Dib seemed to be thinking along the same lines, but a few steps behind his own thought process. There would be no use in hiding his gut feeling from him.

"I don't think it had anything to do with luck human." Dib gave him a sidelong glance that betrayed the boy's look of hope. It was better if he knew that Tak was most likely toying with them. Zim was about to start forward again, having recovered from the shock of their narrow escape, when he looked back at the Dib. The human was leaning against one of the glass containers and breathing hard, despite being carried by him the entire way.

He reminded Zim of a soldier he fought with during the slave rebellions, a young smeet who was traumatized by the quick pace of battle. The comparison struck him as odd seeing as humans and Irkans are near opposites, but the parallels in this case were clear. The alien set down his gun on a nearby table.

"You can rest for a moment Dib." Zim uncharacteristically told him. He did not like waiting, it gave Tak more time to zero in on their position… but a minuet would do the boy good.

"Thanks." Dib said as he slumped to the ground, allowing his legs and arms to go limp. Zim remained standing.

"I'll go scout out the next lab for any more traps." Zim muttered, feeling a little too comfortable next to a human. Dib nodded to him, a human movement, he felt a sudden surge of warmth and the feeling of companionship from somewhere deep within his chest, but it was quickly dampened by his PAK. This sudden surge of emotion only encouraged the Irkan to slip away even quicker than before.

* * *

Dib sat in complete silence, unconsciously lowering the noise of his breathing for fear of being heard by any possible security measures. What felt like hours passed before he glanced around the tunnel-like room he found himself in, getting the unnerving feeling of being watched. Tak most likely had cameras everywhere, perhaps like the spy bug that Zim had used to free him from the detective's car. Maybe they were creeping up on him now, crawling towards him in hordes with their sharp arms and legs.

Dib shuddered and looked at the floor around him in an attempt to dispel the fear that his paranoia had conjured up. Thankfully, he found nothing upon the floor but his own reflection. The human glanced at it once and looked away in a disinterested manner before doing a double take at the unfamiliar stranger who looked back at him.

Aside from his filthy appearance from all the hazards he endured previously in the day, there was also a change in the way his face generally looked. Dib noticed that his skin was a bit tighter around his jaw, and that in the same area little hairs had sprouted up. They were nothing like the beards of grown men but still gave him an older appearance. Suddenly a thought struck him, standing up quickly, the boy began to search for a tall and smooth piece of wall. Once he found one, he gasped.

There standing just across the smooth polished metal, stood a stranger where he would normally see himself. The boy who looked back at him seemed to be growing out of the clothes he was wearing and had a determined look in his eye. Dib also noticed that his hair was much longer than it used to be, it looked as though he had gone months without a haircut. He timidly reached out to touch the sheen that separated him from this mysterious stranger who wore his clothes. Just before his hand hit the metal, he saw something in the reflective surface, something that stood right behind him.

Dib felt a strong hand grip the back of his head and push it into the metal in front of him, he shouted. Pain sprang away from his face and tears swam to his eyes, but before he could react, the same person grabbed the back of the human's hair and flung him backwards. Upon impact with a glass tube, he felt several cracking sensations and a warm liquid that seemed to seep out onto his back. He sat there dazed and listened to the dark chucking of his assailant.

"She… the master, wants it… Wants you." A man giggled from somewhere in front of him. Dib's eyes cleared after a moment and he found himself looking into the eyes of the detective. The thing that wore the mask of a man was much like he saw it before; cuts, holes, and burns were still covering his skin and clothes, but he now had a desperate look in his eye as he lurched towards him.

"You can help me do it!" The man who was clearly insane now giggled, grabbing Dib by the neck and lifting him up against the breaking glass tube. His other hand produced that all too familiar pistol. Desperation swarmed the boy's body and a primal instinct seemed to take over for his overworked and overwhelmed mind. His body began to act on its own as he kicked the man in the groin, gleaning a yelp and enough room to squirm out of his grasp.

The human dropped to the floor next to the machine that served Tak and began to crawl towards the pistol Zim had left on a stand nearby. A wiring sound reverberated behind him and he turned to see that the Detective had gotten back up, twitching like a maniac coming down from withdrawal. He seemed to have dropped the pistol however.

"Where do you think you're going huh?" Dib heard the detective ask right before he noticed the black pistol in front of him. Grabbing it quickly the human smirked as he whipped around to shoot the man, only to be met by nothing. A demented giggle sounded from somewhere in the mess of machines around him. Dib broke out into a cold sweat as he gripped the gun with sweaty hands, turning around at every new noise. His mind was aware that unlike his previous paranoia, this man was very real, and very dangerous.

"Why hello there." Someone said behind Dib. Terrified, he pulled the trigger but was picked up roughly by two gloved hands before he could aim. He turned quickly to face the man, only to have the pistol wrestled from his own trembling hands. He saw his life flash before his eyes and fought against the thing with every fiber of his being as he looked in its eyes, now only six inches away.

"DIB!" The man grunted with gritted teeth, his face contorted in what appeared to be a struggle within his own mind. His shaking hands tried to hold the gun against the side of Dib's head, but the human reacted quickly by pushing it back at the Detective with all his strength. One finger found the trigger, he looked into the broken eyes of a monster and hesitated as he saw humanity at last, peaking up through the broken cracks.

"Help M-me…" The Detective pleaded with him, it was easy to see that he just wanted an end to what he had become. One of the two pulled the trigger.

* * *

Zim stalked around the halls of Tak's base using his PAK legs. He was like a spider the way he blended with the shadows, appeared for a moment, only to disappear but a second later. He paused before every hallway, clinging to the ceiling using all limbs, mechanical and organic, never touching the ground before he was able to scan every nook and cranny for security measures.

The Irken watched as his data pad flashed, silently letting him know that the coast was clear. He dropped to the floor as silently as possible, locating the camera that he had just barely managed to avoid. Zim used one of his PAK legs to cut a circle in the ceiling around disguised monitoring device. He pulled it down just enough to expose the wires, but not enough to set off an alarm or disable the circuits, and attached a spy bug to it.

After replacing the camera exactly as it had been before, Zim checked the connection to his data-pad. Once connection was established, he began to count quietly to himself. After reaching five, the feed went to static. He grinned to himself. It was the automated defense systems that had disabled the bug, not Tak, who would never have let it go on for that long. It was a good sign as she was most likely focused on something, or someone else.

Worry settled into Zim's squeedilysooch like a cold block of ice as he thought of the Dib, all alone, being confronted and killed or captured by Tak's security. The Irken felt the unfamiliar sensation of feeling worried about someone or something since Tak left his base. He did not have time to ponder this feeling however, as a shout reverberated down the hall behind him. His antenna's twitched, the sound was faint and he could be mistaken… but it would be better to check.

Zim cursed his conscience and reached for his pistol. He grabbed at thin air twice before remembering where he left it. The Irken allowed two of his PAK legs to descend and cross defensively in front of him. With that small amount of protection, the alien began to backtrack to where he left his companion. He counted rooms as he passed them, remembering that he passed six before hearing the noise.

"Three…" Zim whispered to himself as he passed as room with pipes covering the walls and two deactivated security terminals. The alien's skin shone slightly in the dull light as he made his way backwards.

"Two…" There were evident sounds of a struggle that caused Zim to speed up his pace. A yelp sounded two rooms down, he hoped that Dib was still ok.

"One…" Just before he passed through the final door into the labs, a gunshot exploded beyond. The Irken threw himself to the side of the door to avoid possible fire. All sounds of a struggle had ended. Just silence. He felt fear gnawing at his courage, he felt guilt prepared to crush him if he let another take his problems once again… but he had to know. Zim took a deep breath, and rounded the corner.

**Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, SORRY! I posted on my profile page, that most of you most likely didn't get, that I had to re-post this story do to an incident with my profile. Again, sorry if I blew up you email addresses; I tried to warn people and tell them to take me off of their alert list, but I probably didn't get to all of you. I have to do this with my other stories (as soon as I find the backups for those) so if you do not want a lot of emails you have gotten before; Please take me off of your alert list. On an unrelated note; I kept my promise (the second one) and now we are one step closer to the end. Read, Review bla bla bla... sorry**


	22. The Last Stretch

Zim didn't bother looking around the room before he jumped into cover behind a large experimentation tube. His PAK pumping adrenalin into his veins and controlling his breathing, he was ready for anything. Landing silently, he snuck a quick look around the side of the container. No one was there. Taking no chances, he crouched and slunk to the next tube. He could hear nothing but the steady drip of some unknown liquid further down the bay. Grizzly thoughts flashed through the Irkan's mind, forcing him to quicken his pace.

Finally, He was within sight of where he left Dib. Things were a mess. An experiment tube had been cracked and was now dripping it's sterilized fluid. Trays and the utensils that once lay upon them were scattered across the floor with bits of glass and shards of metal. After snatching his pistol from the floor and examining the area for possible threats, Zim tried to piece together what had happened.

Looking closely, he was able to see traces of a red liquid on the broken tube. The substance was thick and opaque, but unknown to him. No Irken tools used such a material… More of the stuff was smeared across a dent in the metal wall behind him. Zim shrugged and returned to his careful observations.

More abundant than the scarce red liquid, was a nanite infused blue substance that he recognized as the prototype 'current paste'. It was used in non-organic drones to replace less efficient wires, Tak was fond of it, but he found tubes to be of more use. A large amount of this substance was splattered against a nearby wall, suggesting that one of Tak's drones had been killed. But if that were so… where was the human?

While pondering this mystery, Zim noticed that a there was a trail of several dots consisting of that red liquid he had noticed earlier. It was a thin layer that had dried around the edges. It led around a bend in the hallway a few feet from his current position. Having no other leads to explore, the Irken began to follow it. Reaching the corner, Zim pressed himself against the wall and listened for anything that may be around the bend.

Something moved, and before Zim could get away, a hand lunged and grabbed his neck. He gagged loudly as the being yanked him around the corner and slammed his PAK against the wall, sending spots flashing across his vision. Through the ordeal, he dropped the weapon. Something cold and metal was pressed against his throat before being pulled back quickly.

"Oh god, Zim! I thought you were one of them!" Dib let go of his neck, allowing Zim to slide down to the floor, taking a quick breath before looking up at the Human. The boy had several small cuts and scrapes, a large cut on his head that had been sealed by dried blood, a large part of his hair had been ripped out by the roots, and he was clutching his side. Despite it all, the Dib was alive. Regaining his breath, the Irken decided that an explanation was due.

"What happened?" He wheezed, looking back at where he thought his pistol had fallen. Dib looked to the floor as if ashamed of what his answer would be.

"It was that Detective." Zim's antennas rose in curiosity as he began searching through the aftermath for his weapon. While helping him, Dib filled him in on everything that had happened, easily done until he came to the part where he and the Detective held the pistol. Despite reloading the weapon he had just found, the Irken did not fail to notice as the human turned away.

"It was then that I saw a person… not a drone." Dib cleared his throat and Zim focused more intently on the human as he continued.

"He asked for help… I- I didn't want to, but he was… He was…" He choked on his own words. Zim felt sympathy for the human, but didn't know what to do about it… this was new, everything right now was new. On an impulse, he reached out a claw and patted the Dib on the back.

"I'm… sorry Dib. I know how you feel." He lied, as the human nodded, choking back tears.

"I pulled the trigger." Dib shook his head. Trying his best to keep himself together. Sure he had destroyed robots before, but no people. Zim noticed the black pistol sting out of the human's pocket. Curiosity overwhelming his weak sense of sympathy, he reached for the device. Pulling it out, he examined the primitive weapon as his partner sat down, trying furiously to wipe the sticky blue paste from his face.

Zim noticed that the gun used little metal projectiles, instead of the energy that he was used to. The barrel had a thin black residue lining the inside, for whatever purpose it served, he didn't know. Suddenly, he remembered what Dib had said.

"Where did-" He got no further as the human pointed in between two tubes. Zim's eyes made out what used to be a drone. It looked as though Dib had propped his enemy up against the wall in a sitting position. A large hole in the side of its head was leaking that blue paste to the floor, where it pooled. The thing had a small smile on its face that did nothing but enhanced the creepiness of the corpse. Zim shuddered as he looked at the wasted pile of metal and flesh. So much shattered potential.

Suddenly, Zim realized something; the drone might not have to be squandered if the Dib didn't hit the right systems. If there was a working connection uplink in that machine's 'head' he might be able to find Tak's signal and cripple it, or even better, turn her systems against her again. All he would have to do is check it's central processor, most likely located in the human's head… The Irken paused and turned back at the sticky mess the human's projectile made and shuddered slightly. But, he reminded himself, it is for the best. He had to get to Tak.

Zim handed the black revolver to the human before approaching the corpse. Dib watched him move, dumbstruck as to what the Irken was doing.

"Zim?" He started, confused as his partner seemed to be looking into the bullet hole that he had made in the dead man's head.

"What are you-" The Irken extended a PAK leg and quickly stabbed it into the side of the Detective's cranium. Dib quickly looked away and resisted his gag reflex, holding his hands over his mouth to avoid throwing up. There were several cracking noises behind him, he assumed that it was the skull, trailed by a sickening crack. Following all the previous noises came and even worse squishing sound, his mind refused to ponder what it could be that the Irken was doing. This continued for a few seconds before Zim shouted in triumph.

"I found it!" He barely glanced as his partner held up a small box strewn with some sort of grey and blue scraps, parts of what he could only assume were- Dib vomited onto the previously clean floor as Zim gave him a confused and what he assumed was supposed to be a slightly apologetic look.

"What the Hell?" Dib coughed out after he was done gagging. The Irken tilted his head in curiosity.

"I had to recover the uplink transmitter from his skull." He replied, starting to flick bits of brain and flesh from the small black box. Dib finally noticed the object in his companion's hand, deciding that he would give Zim a chance to explain himself, he turned back to him.

"What is it?" He asked, steadying himself by grabbing the wall with his hand. The Irken smiled and examined the newly cleaned object, seemingly satisfied by his handiwork and his question.

"This, Dib-" Zim motioned for him to follow as he talked "-is a data storage device that contains an uplink to Tak's mainframe, and the last signal frequency that she used to relay orders to her pawn back there." As they progressed, Zim quieted his voice and began to glance around, as if nervous that Tak might be listening. They exited the labs and entered what appeared to be a storage facility.

"If we can block her signal, or better yet, take control of her mainframe, well…" The Irken's eyes narrowed and his voice lowered, as if concerned "we win." He seemed distressed at this realization, but Dib dismissed it as simple nervousness. He had never been very good at reading faces, let alone Irken faces anyway, and could just be getting certain signals confused. They exited the storage room and came across a large sealed door with bold irken scrawl written across the top.

Zim nodded and approached a terminal next to the door. His eyes glazed over slightly as he looked at the symbols written across the screen before them, Dib could only wonder what the Irken was thinking…

* * *

Zim looked down at the screen as his hands moved with a trance-like fluidity across the hologram, typing in a code he remembered from another's memories. The code, as Dib would understand it, was 9319-1-39. His hand's stopped moving over the 'send command' interface and his mind confronted an issue that he had not wanted to face until now; would Mimi play a triple agent? Pretending to seek his aid for her master and providing him with false codes that activate some sort of trap?

On one hand, If Tak had sent her Sir in the first place; she could have had him killed back in his repair bay. Mimi could have fried his code or delivered a virus or just slit his throat while he was unaware. But perhaps Tak had some other motive? Maybe she wanted him to make it this far, recruiting the Dib and bringing him along as well, taking out two birds with one stone? It was quite possible, but when factoring in everything else that had happened so recently, he was not about to take these 'coincidences' at face value.

Zim scoffed at the bizarreness of it all, shaking his head before looking back down at the code. He really had no other leads… but this decision was affected by more than that. The part of him that secretly trusted Tak while they had been partners, while hurt by her leaving him, cried out that he needed to listen to Mimi and help her. But countering that was the Irken soldier in him, arguing that information given by the enemy is most likely false. Would he be willing to bear the consequences his decision might invoke? Did he trust Tak that much-

Zim quickly activated the code check, causing the screen to go blank for a moment as the code was processed. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, hearing Dib shuffle nervously behind him. Suddenly, the door clicked, both beings winced, expecting bullets to tear through them, a pit to open, or the station to vent air from their section. After a few seconds of waiting, the Irken opened his eyes to look at the door in wonder as each of the nine mandatory locks disengaged, followed by the seven other "precautionary" deadbolts. The two panels slid apart to reveal an operational mainframe uplink.

Dib's mouth dropped open and Zim felt a smile grace his own lips. The large machine rested in the center of a large circular room that was completely covered with observation panels that displayed every bit of code in Tak's data reservoir as they raced to their destinations all over the station. The door rested in the center of the wall, and required a walkway to the terminal that rested in the center of the room, surrounded on all side by transition relays.

After the walkway extended, Zim raced across to the terminal, reminding himself that Tak could still shut down the archive if he wasn't swift enough. Quickly, he pulled the cover off of the storage device he had pulled from that man Dib had killed and attached several of the wires to the terminal, codes flashed across the screen until a neutral voice droned through the chamber.

"Password accepted, welcome back mistress Tak." Zim grinned wildly to himself as he secured the terminal, blocking it from any outside intruders, namely Tak. He barely glanced back at Dib as he looked around in wonder at the room around them. They both jumped as the intercom was turned on and a wall cleared itself of code to make way for an incoming transmition. A familiar female appeared, scowling at both of them.

"Zim?!" Tak shrieked at him "How did you- Get out of my systems!" Zim ignored her and kept on working as Dib glared back at the screen. She seemed to lose interest in their staring contest and set back to her computer, trying one last futile firewall failsafe on his Partner's viral attack. Setting those run-times in motion she looked back at the screen almost pleadingly, gaining Zim's attention.

"Zim please! You don't know what you're doing! Let me talk-" Dib shot the screen with his new revolver, just barely stopping the recoil of the gun from breaking his nose. He watched with visible satisfaction as the monitor display shattered. Zim's gaze lingered where she had been for a moment, trying to understand what she would have wanted to discuss with him. Shaking himself of such thoughts, he returned to his takeover. Suddenly, a beep resounded from the terminal, and codes flashed across the screen, all of Tak's security and lockdown codes were transferred into the Detective's data storage.

"Dib! I got them we-" The Irken heard a click behind him and felt the familiar feeling of having a gun trained on him.

"How did you know that password?" He human asked, ignoring his last statement. Zim slowly raised his arms above his head and turned around, forcing his face to go blank of all emotion and his voice to stay even.

"Dib, now is not the time for distrust. We can get to Tak. We can finish this!" Dib glared at him through cracked glasses.

"And how am I supposed to know you're not working with her?! Why did that door open when we were about to die? Where were you when her drone was attacking me? How did you figure out that code? Damn it Zim! I trusted you!" Dib shouted at him as the base became theirs. Zim felt anger rise up in him, but he managed to force it out of his voice.

"You think I would plan this? I don't know why that door opened! Maybe she was toying with us!" Dib scoffed, but let him continue.

"And while that 'Detective' was attacking you, I was clearing the security to get to this terminal-" he motioned to the mainframe behind him. The human seemed to think about this, but shook his head.

"That still doesn't explain the password." He spoke lowly, lowering his gun but a fraction of an inch. Zim took advantage of this hesitation, if he couldn't convince Dib of his innocence, all would be lost.

"I know Tak, I know her habits and rituals, I thought I knew what she would make the password to be and I was right! If that's not good enough for you, if all we have accomplished together is not good enough for you, then shoot me." Dib hesitated for but a tiny moment, before lowering the pistol.

"All right Zim. This one last time, I will trust you." Zim smiled as he set back to work removing all the passwords he could from Tak's terminal and then calling an elevator up to her main control center. Finally, he could finally get some answers.

**Today is 8-16-12, the day before my anniversary of starting this story. An entire year… well, today is quite special in my mind as I need only post my final chapter after this and then get reassigned to my new subject… I will miss the Invader Zim topic, and maybe I have contributed enough to be missed. Well, I will keep my promise, Tonight at 12:00 A.M. (At NY NY) I will post the final chapter. Until then, I leave you guys with this. Mistakes aplenty but I can fix them eventually.**


	23. All or Nothing

**Please finish the entire chapter before you judge me. When you finish, then you can yell and scream for my head... Enjoy.**

They had reached the center of the base in a matter of minutes now that Zim had taken control. All security had registered them as friends and Tak's drones as foes. Now she was trapped inside of the control room just beyond a large metal door in front of them. Zim slid to the side of the door and Dib did the same at the other side. The Irken looked intense as he primed his new gun, a rifle he had found in one of her armories. He had kept the detectives gun, one shot left and he was hoping that Tak would try to fight.

Zim had decided that he would rig the base to explode in about thirty minuets, they would have plenty of time to get to the one escape pod that Tak kept in her control room. A part of him reminded him that he had yet to decide what to do about her, but he silenced it quickly as now was not the time for indecision. Zim nodded to the human.

On his partners queue Dib kicked in the door to the control room of Tak's orbital platform. The doors swung inward and slammed into the wall on either side, resulting in a loud boom that reverberated throughout the room. Zim cringed next to him at the sound but quickly recovered and marched into the chamber, his rifle sweeping side to side. The human followed a few paces behind him, his revolver pointed down at the ground and his face as cold as ice. Each keeping a level head, they could not screw up here.

At first sight, Dib was in awe, this was Tak's command room? The enormous dome like chamber was grandly decorated in a beautiful purple and blue contrast. Unlike Zim's base, Tak had designed hers to be more eye friendly with all pipes hidden within the walls, all unneeded equipment stored away and any stations that she would not need, left out or hidden away somewhere.

Where there would normally be communication relaying equipment such as monitors and computers, there rested instead, memory cores for the base, all swirling around a large elevated platform in the center, where a high-backed chair rested with its back to them. A light layer of fog floated a foot off of the floor, residue of the base's core cooling devices. It swirled around them as they walked, creating a ghastly look to the surrounding area.

Dib watched as Zim lowered his rifle and moved forward, his steps allowing him to slide from one spot to the other. While this technique was undoubtedly taught to him by Tak, Dib could not help but notice how halting and jerky the Irken's movements were in comparison with his teacher's perfectly flowing strafe. He doubted whether his partner could hold his own in a fair fight with her even after all the training she had given him.

They reached the base of the raised platform and scaled several stairs to reach the top. On the crest of the stage, Dib was surprised by how large it was up close; easily reaching forty feet in diameter, the platform still was tiny in comparison of the entire room. The chair was in the very center and remained with its back to them until the odd pairing of human and Irken took a few steps towards it. Slowly spinning it around, Tak was revealed, sitting calmly and quietly in the chair.

Zim gripped his rifle tightly, expecting her to attack them in some way. He realized with a jolt that she did not hold a weapon of any kind, simply her bandaged claws resting on the arm rests. While she did not have a weapon, he did not doubt whether she would try to use her mind against him. She was just as dangerous armed as she was unarmed, if not more so.

As they stood there, Dib and Zim aiming at Tak, the male Irken took note of his previous teacher's appearance. She had cleaned and reset her uniform, no longer was it stained or in disarray but tidy and official looking. Her boots had been freshly shined along with her gloves that rested on the arm of the chair she sat in, as they would not fit on her bandaged hands. He felt as if no time had passed between them first meeting, she looked exactly as she did oh so long ago, the only difference was a tired but knowing glint in her eye and two small glowing orbs that floated by both of her temples.

Dib nudged him slightly, once he noticed that Zim's eyes had lingering on her for a bit too long, shaking the Irken from his thoughts. Zim shook his head and looked back down the end of his rifle, the games we over and she was finally trapped. Mustering up his voice he spoke to get her attention.

"It's over Tak! Give up and admit defeat." Zim spoke commandingly, absolutely sure of himself and their situation. He lost some nerve when Tak chuckled lightly to herself, as if she were watching his defeat instead of participating in her own. She stood and began to walk towards him, not him and the Dib but him specifically.

"Stop!" Zim commanded, his voice sounded weird to him for whatever reason. Dib looked over at him and frowned, confused, was he afraid of her? Tak continued walking and cut the distance between them in half in her natural, flowing strides. As she moved, her bandages unraveled, made of almost lighter than air material, the cloth floated behind her for a moment before being jerked with her next stride. When she paused, for a brief moment the Irken felt as if she looked as an angle come to save him, while the Human felt as if she were a temptress, attempting to seduce his friend for more sinister purposes.

"Stop... Please." Zim whispered quietly to her when she got within five feet of him, Tak hesitated before continuing, stopping completely when she stood only an arm's reach away. She gently grabbed the top of his gun with her newly bare hands and pushed it away from her chest, gently but with just enough force to keep it there. Zim didn't protest and was locked within her eyes as she leaned in close to him, faces just inches apart, she spoke for the first time. Dib back away and kept his gun trained on her, unsure of what was happening.

"I hated you; you ruined my life and destroyed my future." She whispered lowly to him, disheartening Zim, she still hadn't reached the capacity to forgive. However, and despite his previous thoughts, she leaned in closer and continued talking to him in a silky sweet tone that contained just enough danger to be threatening.

"But I don't care." Her words stunned him as she leaned in close to his face, just centimeters away when a shot rang out within the room. Zim watched as if in slow motion as Tak stopped moving forward, her lips almost brushed up against his before she stumbled backwards clutching her side. He turned to look at Dib just as the human lowered his smoking gun. Tak collapsed at the base of her command chair and coughed up some pinkish blood onto the floor.

"I can't kill you…" She wheezed out in a defeated tone and with a punctured filtration unit before continuing. Zim started forward and kneeled next to her in concern, the human stood a bit behind him. Dib had approached peacefully but did not do more than take his finger off of the trigger lest Tak have a fallback plan. The female looked Zim in the eyes before continuing despite her wounds.

"But that doesn't mean he can't…" Tak finished with a cough as the orbs on either side of her head flashed purple and a small flash of blue darted between them, past her eyes. Before Zim could react, something hard and blunt slammed into the back of his head sending bright beams of light across his vision along with stabs of pain. He fell to the floor, twisting in mid air as to not land on his face only to have his PAK hit the ground instead, sending painful shocks down his spine and through his limbs.

Zim waited for a moment for his eyes to clear before looking around. He had landed right next to Tak as he could see her large angry eyes glowering down at him; however she seemed somewhat sad and remorseful though a bit detached. Breaking their stare-down, he looked back at the human just in time to see him pull back the hammer of the gun. Dib's eyes were filled with terror as he aimed down at him, unable to control his own movements.

"Goodbye Zim." Both Tak and Dib spoke in completely synchronized tones, overlapping so perfectly that they created only the slightest of remorseful echoes. The human's finger pulled the trigger and… a click rang out. Zim winced at the noise, expecting to feel a shot tear through him, reopening them when the pain did not come. The Irken watched as Dib looked down at the revolver and checked the empty loading chamber with relief.

Tak growled and Dib threw the detective's revolver aside, he approached with jerky steppes as if unpracticed and awkward, stumbling twice over his own feet. Zim tried to move away but found his own movements hindered by Tak's mind, causing him to react slower. Reaching the two Irkens, Dib fell to his knees next to Zim and gripped his partners neck. Forcing his mind against Tak's divided psyche, Zim regained control of his arms, allowing him to try and fight back. However, his struggles were pathetic in comparison to Dib's unnatural strength, granted to him by Tak, he could only get a gasp of air only from time to time.

Tears of pain and frustration welled up within Dib's eyes as he felt the pain of Tak's wound through their bond. He was unable to fight her off or break their connection. He was being forced to watch, helpless, as he killed Zim and would then most likely be killed himself. It seemed unreal with how far they had come, how much they had sacrificed. Despite the obviously hopeless situation, Dib tried desperately to break her hold over him, but his mind was no match for hers.

Zim tore at Dib's grasp, kicking weakly at the human but earning little for his efforts and losing even more air. On occasion, with a burst of strength, he was able to pry the human's hands away from his neck for a brief gasp of air. These occurrences were few and far apart with his weaning strength and lack of oxygen. His eyes rolled wildly as he desperately tried to stop his own death, Dib's tears of pain fell upon him as Tak's blood soaked into his uniform. Small black dots began to appear in his vision and the room's light seemed to dim, he was dying once again.

Just like before, a sense of clarity was brought upon him, clearing his vision and allowing greater focus. It was only after this happened that he locked his gaze to that of Tak's and realized, she was crying. It was not the way a human would cry, hopelessly blubbering and making much noise, she simply sat there with a glazed expression and a single tear trailing down her cheek. He felt the need to do one last thing before she killed him.

"T-ak… Di-b…" He squeezed out through his crushed windpipe, the two turned to him with confused looks, but he had their eyes and most of their attention. With an enormous amount of force, Zim pulled at the Dib's fingers, earning an opening that allowed him to continue.

"I don't-" Dib squeezed, briefly cutting Zim off. His vision swam, the dark spots began to take over, but despite this he continued.

"hold you-" Blackness overcame Zim's vision, but he clung to the last shred of consciousness he had and used it to whisper the last word of his epitaph, to both the beings hanging on to his every syllable.

"responsible…" with a sigh, Zim fell to the edge of consciousness, letting go of all the pain and giving himself to the blackness beyond. But it was not meant to be. Though he still could not see, he was able to hear Tak's sharp intake of breath and wrenching sob as her pain became her own once again, then thud of Dib's body against the floor.

Vision returned to Zim in small bursts, like brief flashes of reality that pierced into his mind. There was Tak sliding to the floor into a pool of her own blood, but clinging to life, same as he had been moments before, now sobbing like a newborn smeet. Next he saw Dib dragging his body to the command chair in an attempt to hoist himself up. Blackness overcame the Irken for a little bit, but he awoke next to his former partner and teacher, both on the floor, looking into the others eyes, not with anger, not with sadness, but something else.

Tak was breathing raggedly, she looked broken and beaten, she was crying silently once more, not for her loss in the pointless struggle, but for something Zim was able to see clearly now. What she had said before trying to kill him had been a cry for help. She didn't hate him, not anymore. He also saw the human's gun wound, it had punctured her PAK, but hit no vital systems, she had time to live. Maybe he could…

Something grabbed the front of his uniform, it began to pull him away from Tak and to a nearby wall that slid away to reveal the emergency escape pod, right on schedule. Craning his neck ever so slightly, Zim was able to see Dib's strained face as he tried to drag him to the escape pods. An explosion shook the platform beneath them, tossing Dib to the floor, he recovered quickly though and tried to pull Zim once more in his futile attempt to save him, if Dib did not leave him, no one would make it.

"leave me…" Zims words were but a mumbled whisper, but Dib heard them all the same. Not believing his ears, he returned to his struggle and repeated Zims own words prior to this mission.

"No sacrifices Zim, we both leave or no one does. Two sides of the same coin so to speak." Dib had added the last part on his own of course, but the synonym rang true with Zim, However, he had unfinished business. The Irken threw his weight upward and clasped the human's shoulder in an iron grip, holding himself up at eye level with his friend.

"Leave me."Zim repeated forcefully, using the time Dib's surprise brought to get himself to his unsteady feet, extending a single PAK leg to keep his balance. Turning slowly, the Irken began to limp his way back to Tak as the station self destructed and would soon be destroyed. The emergency power came on and threw the scene in deep red lights adding to the confusion.

Throughout this precession Dib did not move, he remained immobile until Zim half turned, looked him straight in the eye and mouthed 'Go.' Slowly at first the human's legs responded, he knew it would be pointless to try and save him now, after what he had seen in Zim's eyes, almost nothing could. Sprinting to the nearby wall, Dib all but dove into the escape pod and initiated the launch. Glancing though the glass one last time, he saw Zim kneel next to Tak and wave at his departing comrade for the last time. Dib was launched out into space, safe.

He watched from the pod, as the burning station shook itself to pieces before the gravity stabilizers could sustain it no longer, allowing the misshapen mass of red and pink metal to fall to the moon bellow. He turned away with tears in his eyes just as it impacted, lighting up the surrounding space in a marvelous explosion, which set the pod spiraling towards the Earth it circled. At long last, he was going home, but at what cost, he asked himself before coming to the simple solution that it was over, at long last, it was over. For him at least.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Tak's station, before it plummeted to the moon, Tak watched helplessly as Zim stumbled towards her. She wanted him to leave her, to save himself while it was still possible, there would be no life for her after this, she was a goner without medical help and she knew it. Despite this, she felt something warm in the pit of her being; he had come back, just for her.

"You came back…" Tak whispered weakly, voicing her thoughts as Zim knelt next to her, waved to Dib, and then started typing away at his wrist mounted PDA. He nodded in agreement but this response did not satisfy her. She decided then and there that if she were to die with this one answer it would all be worth it.

"Why?" It was a simple question, but Zim did not respond. She was puzzled at first when steam erupted around the platform they were on, there had been no chamber here before had there? It descended slowly at first before speeding up to the point of giving both Irkens a weightless feeling. The lift passed many different floors, most were burning or in the process of exploding, casting gruesome lights upon them, the floor that the platform stopped at, was safe for the time being.

Tak recognized it, her hangar bay. Something wasn't right, there was no tunnel leading to the hanger bay as far as she knew. The female remained motionless as Zim picked her up carefully, cradling her in his arms like a fragile piece of equipment. She looked up at him and got a strange feeling of déjà vu of a time so long ago. Though she felt their positions had been reversed last time, the familiarity remained.

"How-" She began but Zim cut her off, anticipation the question.

"You Sir unit." He replied quickly, scanning the room with his eyes before setting off in the direction of an emergency medicinal escape pod. Tak had nothing to say to this, Mimi had asked Zim for help? It didn't seem possible, yet here they were; escaping imminent death. She receded into herself as she felt the heat coming from all around them, the core was overheating, and the station would fall soon… But they would make it, of that, she was sure. The feeling of being rescued by Zim had a certain luster to her, made her feel somewhat…

Zim watched as Tak faded into unconsciousness, she had lost a lot of blood. He rushed her into the pod and slipped her into the automatic repair system. After making sure the diagnostic process had been started, he launched the pod from the station, seconds before the main core exploded, dropping the station to the moon below. Zim shielded his eyes from the light but was thrown to the floor a few seconds after as the blast sent him, Tak and the pod spiraling away from earth and into the void of space.

Once the pod regained control, he stood and looked around before slumping into the main command chair, it seemed unrealistic. It was over? They were done with it all? Dib he had left, as well as the Earth and its uncertainties, for Tak. He smiled light-headedly at the thought. Just to make sure he was not having demented delusions, Zim stood and stumbled over to the repair chamber where Tak rested. The tube was mostly covered in metal but there was a small glass window that showed him what would have been her face, now blocked by steam.

Something black wiped it away, reveling her face, awake and aware. She did not say anything and he would not have been able to hear her if she did. So as to transfer her feelings she simply placed her claw on the glass separating them as did Zim on the other side, they each nodded to each other, thankful to be alive and in the safe company of a friend... but that word did not seem to fit their current feelings for either of them. Quite possibly, they had become something more.

**And that... Is the end. Thank you one and all for reading my humble story, It had been beyond fun despite the strife and aching uncertainty. Special thanks go to Elena Hurley for checking and confirming the ending, TehDARKTemplar for amazing reviews and Haku1013 for moral support. Everyone else gets less special thanks, because you were not as amazing as these three. Oh and by the way, Evilshope? If your reading this I still owe you something, you never asked for anything though. Thanks to all readers, even more thanks to reviewers, my family (may they remain underground), and my boss for letting me ignore my reviewing duties every now and again to catch up. I will miss you all, but perhaps I will be transferred back if enough time passes... ah well. Goodbye everyone.**

**Sincerely and with my Parting Respects,**

**-The Guilty Bystander**


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